Full renovation of the IRCAD experimental Laboratory

The renovation works, which took place in August in our experimental laboratory entirely dedicated to surgical training, have now been completed. The IRCAD minimally invasive surgery training platform now shifts from 17 to 34 operating tables.

Facility design: ARCHICUB – Francis Parent, architect.

The brand-new IRCAD surgical laboratory truly reflects the international expansion and influence of the research institute created by Professor Marescaux.

This was the challenge that architect Francis Parent decided to take up as he imagined an operating theater encased in a glass environment at play with transparencies, light, and reflections.

Francis Parent took the space dedicated to the surgical lab to a new level, using innovative architectural designs with a strongly marked character. Plays of light, mirrors, and transparency impart a truly immaterial character to the structure, accentuated by infinity effects.

• A faded blue background symbolizing a depth of sky
• A curved glass front, supporting a panorama, putting fine Vosges landscapes and their blue horizon lines into perspective
• A continuous ground and ceiling lighting system highlighting the first planes and accentuating their realistic aspects
• Back walls of the hall are fully concealed and disappear behind their mirror dressing
• Light ceilings in mesh provide chromatic effects accentuating height and transparency
• Lighting through artificial glass canopies evoke sky and daylight. They contribute to making the ceiling disappear at places.
• The dark and shiny ground floor accentuates the depth of space. It puts the surgical armamentarium and the scialytic lighting on display.

The lightbox encircling the ceiling is the assertion of the arranged auditorium setting of the surgical lab. This ring of light strongly identifies the heart of the IRCAD’s research activities.