The Bechar Hospital complex consists of four buildings with communication between them, elevated by footbridges and on the ground floor.
One of the buildings has one floor and a not accessible roof. The other two buildings comprise five floors and a technical roof. Finally, there is a building with three floors and an accessible roof.
The structural system adopted included the flat slab system. The benefits of using in-situ concrete flat slab system, considering the overall construction and operation process, comprises the simplification of the technical facilities installation, the reduction of the construction time and finally the future operation flexibility, allowing the occupier to easily alter the technical facilities layouts to accommodate changes in the use. This flexibility, especially relevant in hospital facilities, has been a result of the following design options: the use of a square grid (or near-square grid); the no existence of beams, downstands or drops.
The structures of the different buildings have been designed in such a way that they can perform correctly during the expected life (100 years), with adequate safety levels, without losing sight of the economic aspects and compatibility with the architectural design.
On buildings, pavements have a very important influence on the overall seismic performance of the structure. In fact, they act as horizontal diaphragms that not only receive and transmit the inertia forces to the vertical structural systems but also guarantee that these systems act in solidarity for the resistance to horizontal action. Therefore it is extremely important that pavements are provided with adequate stiffness and strength and effective connections to vertical structural systems. In this respect, special care must be taken in cases of non-compact or very elongated plant configurations and in the case of large openings in the floors, especially if these openings are located close to the main vertical structural elements, thus making an effective connection difficult.
A structure is considered resilient if it preserves the design, safety, functionality and aesthetic requirements during the life cycle of the system, without any unforeseen maintenance costs.
Defining “performance” as the ability of a structure to meet its intended purpose, from the point of view of safety, functionality and general appearance, it is generally believed that due to the complex effects of the environment on concrete structures and as a result of these reactions, the performance of concrete structures throughout their life cycle cannot be improved solely by the increased quality of the materials used. In order to achieve a better performance, it will be necessary to act: in the design stage of structure and architecture, in the construction and in the procedures related to inspection and maintenance (including preventive maintenance).