Northstar Medical Campus, designed by AN.ONYMOUS (Assistant Professor of Architecture Iman Ansari and Christos Yessios Digital Fabrication Assistant Professor of Architecture Marta Nowak), was featured in Parametric Architecture.

The Northstar Medical Campus is comprised of three one-story medical office buildings, all designed by AN.ONYMOUS, arranged around a public plaza. Building 2 was completed in January 2022, and the remaining two buildings are anticipated to be completed by 2024.

The project, through its novel application of simulation tools and representation techniques, challenges the conventions of the architectural design process, the planning and organization of medical office spaces, and the use of vernacular building materials and construction techniques. The outcome is a dynamic environment that offers a variety of visual and physical interactions within the building and with the architecture. The floor plan of Northstar Dermatology is divided into two overlapping rectangular areas that are offset and rotated relative to one another.

The design firm monitored the performance by establishing the primary spaces in a digital model and simulating the movement of various healthcare users (patients, staff, doctors, and nurses) multiple times. It iteratively modified the floor plan to increase efficacy and decrease unwelcome obstructions or interactions. The final plan is the result of an iterative simulation process that not only allowed the designers to incorporate the experimental method into the architectural design process but also enabled them to create an office in which the circulation is better synchronized with the schedule and pattern of daily activities.

“In this way, the building, beyond a formal or aesthetic container, functions as a framework to improve the movement and interactions of various users in space,” says Marta Nowak, Co-Founder and Principal of AN.ONYMOUS.