Constructora Ormachea
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★ Institutional milestone Healthcare

Hospital Santiago 2

Caja Nacional de Salud · El Alto · 2014

30,000 m² of hospital infrastructure. It is the largest healthcare project Constructora Ormachea has built, and the largest floor area the firm has delivered under a public contract.

Hospital Santiago 2 excavation with two tower cranes erected and El Alto brick housing in the background.

Two tower cranes erected over the excavation. The surrounding brickwork gives the true scale of the site within El Alto’s urban fabric.

Year completed
2014
Client
Caja Nacional de Salud
Floor area
30,000 m²
City
El Alto
Typology
Hospital
Status
Completed

What a finished hospital does not show

A finished hospital looks like any other building. What sets a 30,000 m² healthcare project apart is everything buried before a single ward exists.

These are site photographs, not brochure images. They show the excavation with two tower cranes erected at once, the perimeter retaining walls holding the slope back from neighbouring homes, the setting out and pouring of every footing, and large-span slab formwork. This is the stage that determines whether the building is well built; it is also the only stage that can never be photographed again.

The project was built in El Alto, above four thousand metres, on a site enclosed by existing construction. Those two conditions — altitude and proximity — govern every technical decision visible here.

Site record · 6 photographs

Overhead view of excavated foundation trenches with blue-helmeted workers between them.
Foundation trenches opened and set out. Each grid on the ground is one footing before reinforcement.
Mixer truck pouring concrete into the footings of Hospital Santiago 2, with the crew working around it.
Footing pour. Mixer truck, backup mixer and the full crew over the reinforcement mat already in place.
Perimeter concrete retaining walls and stacked timber formwork, with two tower cranes above the site.
Perimeter retaining walls already poured. Holding back the slope is what allows excavation to that depth without endangering neighbouring buildings.
Concrete columns rising from foundation level, with red-overalled workers and a tower crane.
Columns rising from foundation level, with starter bars ready for the next floor.
Large-span slab formwork on shoring, with perimeter concrete walls and a tower crane.
Slab formwork. The continuous deck shows the span that has to be supported in a single pour.

The completed building

The building in service today, as Hospital Obrero No. 30 “Apóstol Santiago” of the Caja Nacional de Salud in El Alto.

Completed façade of Hospital Obrero No. 30 “Apóstol Santiago” in El Alto, with vertical signage across the panelled face.
The same building in service. The vertical signage runs across the blind face closing the main volume.
Completed main entrance of the hospital, with the glazed circulation tower and the metal canopy over the access.
The main entrance. The glazed circulation tower stands where one of the two cranes was erected.

An institutional project on your desk?

Santiago 2 is one of 70 works in the portfolio. The complete record, with floor area and financing entity for each, is published.

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