A Russian billionaire has designed a huge boat-shaped hospital for the new Dubai-style Tunisia Economic City.
Vasily Klyukin claims the White Sails Hospital and Spa will be the “most pleasant hospital in the world”. Doctors and nurses will have to wear “marine uniforms” and the concept aims to make patients feel more like “guests on a cruise”. With four skyscrapers as the “sails”, it will sit on an artificial lake in the new city, which is being built in stages by the Tunisian Government for £30 billion. The building will include four health centres and spas, each designed as a sailboat.
Vasily Klyukin claims the White Sails Hospital and Spa will be the “most pleasant hospital in the world”. Doctors and nurses will have to wear “marine uniforms” and the concept aims to make patients feel more like “guests on a cruise”. With four skyscrapers as the “sails”, it will sit on an artificial lake in the new city, which is being built in stages by the Tunisian Government for £30 billion. The building will include four health centres and spas, each designed as a sailboat.
Klyukin made his fortune as co-founder of Russian commercial bank Sovcombank, and has designed yachts, so hopes his boat-inspired design will be his first building to be constructed. Apparently, the idea came to him because of his frequent hospital visits to check his condition before his, now on hold, flight into space with Virgin Galactic in 2015;” I want to show people a hospital where there is no room for fear.”
The White Sails Hospital and Spa is being built by international engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti with investment from Saudi Arabia’s Lalei Al Barakah. The interior design for the hospital has not yet been completed but Klyukin claims it can be completed within four years.
The medical city will contain several international and local hospitals, a medical college, laboratories and facilities for exercise. The medical city is part of Tunisia Economic City , and the hospital will be one of the first buildings constructed in the medical city area. Districts have also been designated for media, sport, business, finance, universities, industry and a port. A new “Old Town” will even be built in the city, being constructed in the northeastern town of Enfedha, to merge the past to the future.
The project, inspired by the construction in Dubai, is a bold move to boost tourism, medical tourism and trade to Tunisia. It is being promoted by President Mustapha Bin Jaafar, who responds to critics that such a poor country cannot afford a vanity project, that jobs and other benefits for the Tunisian people make the Tunisia Economic City a necessity. Much will depend on whether or not he can attract overseas investors to pay for the construction.
The 90 square kilometers project with an 18 kilometers beachfront, aims to be a modern sustainable and eco-friendly metropolis with 500,000 inhabitants and 250,000 jobs once completed within 15 years. Half of the needed £30 million has been raised from a host of regional, Arab, European and international investors and developers.
Tunisia medical city will include international hospitals, local hospitals, a medical college, nursing institute, wellness parks, preventive care, spas, corporate wellness / pressure relief center, yoga and meditation, accommodation, plus sports and recreation. It is a keystone of the new city.
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