Insights

On Call for Healthcare in Asia

Perkins Eastman’s medical planners and architects are building a portfolio of work across the world’s largest continent to become a leading force in strategic planning and design.

Perkins Eastman’s Mumbai studio closed a deal this week to design two new healthcare facilities in India, which call for master planning, medical planning, and architecture. The agreement closely follows a similar commission to design a new cancer hospital in Vietnam. “These are full-service projects,” says Brad Perkins, the firm’s co-founder and chairman, who describes them as the latest steps in making Perkins Eastman a go-to international firm for healthcare. “Sixty percent of the world’s population lives in Asia. They have needs and we have skills they want,” Perkins says. “We’re optimistic that the many opportunities we’re now getting are going to help us achieve our goal of building a successful regional healthcare practice.”

a rendering of the new Alexandra Hospital and outpatient clinic, Singapore

Construction for the new Alexandra Hospital, above left, and outpatient clinic, above right, began in May in Singapore. The original historic hospital in the foreground is being repurposed as an administration building.
Rendering © Alexandra Hospital

The “key stimulus,” as Perkins describes it, of the firm’s expanding work in India, Southeast Asia, and China began with a major public hospital master plan and the design of its new rehab hospital in Hong Kong in 2018 and 2019, followed by a medical planning project for the Singapore Ministry of Health, which is building a large new hospital and outpatient clinic. Perkins Eastman opened a studio in Singapore in 2022 to better staff those jobs with local talent and principal-level resources, positioning them and their colleagues in Shanghai and Mumbai to capture the wave of new healthcare development that’s rolling through the region.

Right Place, Right Time

An HSBC report noted in July that “Southeast Asia is accelerating its build-out of public and private hospitals, clinics, senior care facilities and other medical infrastructure, adding doctors and medical staff … and broadly increasing support for the sector. Medical tourism to Southeast Asia is also rising, and could double to more than $100 billion (about $310 per person in the US) a year by 2029.”

In India, a 2022 report by the real estate developer CBRE’s South Asia division stated that the country will require 1.3 billion square feet (about half the area of Athens, Georgia) of additional healthcare space by 2030 to properly accommodate its population’s needs, particularly given the growing prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases and chronic conditions related to COVID-19. “The private sector has become a major player in India’s healthcare industry due to a number of factors, including growing demand, medical tourism, affordable care, and improved quality,” says Perkins Eastman Principal Tania Phillips, the healthcare and senior living practice lead in Mumbai.

Rendering of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Guntur, India

A rendering of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Guntur, India, one of three new public healthcare campuses that Perkins Eastman master planned. © Perkins Eastman

The Mumbai team recently completed master plans for three public teaching-hospital campuses in central, south, and northeast India, and designed the award-winning private Aastrika Midwifery Centre in Bangalore in 2022. They are pursuing additional master planning work for hospitals, senior living, and mental health facilities. The broader healthcare practice is also working with private developers in Vietnam, Thailand, China, and Kazakhstan—and in talks with potential clients in Cambodia, Singapore, The Philippines, Malaysia, and New Zealand—on a variety of consulting and design projects. The bulk of Perkins Eastman’s international healthcare work is in consulting, market analysis, master planning, and medical planning. “It puts us in a higher-level advisory role for these clients,” says Jason Harper, Perkins Eastman principal and the firmwide healthcare co-practice leader. “They pay for the brain power up front.” Describing the conditions there, Harper adds, “Public systems are catching up and modernizing, and private systems are supplementing the public system with higher quality, more private settings.”

It Started in the States

Perkins Eastman’s US track record has served as a potent calling card to capture new work in Asia. Its healthcare practice dates to 1994 with its first commission for Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, Brad Perkins says, which was followed by 20 more projects of varying scales for that client, culminating with the 25-story David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center that opened in 2019. The firm also designed the New Stanford Hospital, which opened the same year, and a separate cancer hospital for Stanford University Medical Center that opened in 2021.

On Call for Healthcare in Asia A patient room in the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York Center
The New Stanford Hospital, exterior aerial view with mountains and water in the background A corner patient room in the New Stanford Hospital, with large windows overlooking the water.

Top row: The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has become world renowned for its specialized treatments and technology as well as its hospitality-infused interiors.
Bottom Row: The New Stanford Hospital, likewise, is a destination for its top medical care and healing environments.
Top left photo by Andrew Rugge / © Perkins Eastman; top right photo © Chris Cooper; bottom left photo © Will Pryce; bottom right photo © Feinknopf Photography / Brad Feinknopf 

Prospective overseas clients frequently tour these hospitals, in addition to the NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital Center for Community Health, a seven-story ambulatory clinic adjacent to the main hospital in Brooklyn’s Park Slope that also opened in 2021. “International clients want to see these high-end facilities. The best technology is there,” says Co-CEO and Executive Director Nick Leahy. And beyond technology, the facilities are also known for warm, healing environments that provide welcoming spaces for patients and families, and comfortable working and rest areas for staff. That’s an important consideration for top-tier private health systems and developers wanting to build hospitals that serve as a medical-tourism destination and attract top doctors and nurses. “They look to the US as the golden standard,” says Principal Michael Hess, who co-manages the Asia region with Harper. As a senior medical planner, Hess worked across Southeast Asia in the healthcare sector for more than 20 years before joining Perkins Eastman in 2022. The firm’s three Asia studios offer “a deep bench of talented people who are working in Asia. Other firms have come and gone on a project basis,” Hess explains, “but we have shown a commitment to staying in the region and building our practice further.”

Advising Private Development

Many private developers are new to the healthcare sector. Therefore, “it puts us in a role where our expertise has greater value,” Harper says. “We become advisers to these groups who want to know how to set up an institution from scratch.” And the advice goes beyond individual buildings to the districts that surround them. “We will often collaborate with the hospitality group or the large-scale planning group to put together a team that can do a mixed-use project,” Harper says. A hospital and hotel, for example, can share the same back-of-house operations such as food or laundry service. “If they’re planned together, there’s an operational advantage.”  The Asia group also works with regional strategic consultants who can provide market-demand analysis and financial strategy for a more comprehensive business plan that can hone the project scope for the firm’s clients.

A rendering for the new Amata comprehensive cancer center in Bangkok, Thailand

The proposed Amata cancer center in Bangkok will anchor a new “meditown” that includes a hotel and spa. Rendering © Perkins Eastman

That type of work is prevalent in Bangkok, where the firm recently completed a strategic feasibility study and master plan for a major comprehensive cancer center. “Bangkok leads the region in terms of medical tourism and healthcare-hospitality convergence,” Hess says. In this case, Perkins Eastman was awarded the study through a US Trade Development Agency (USTDA) grant to Thailand’s Amata Corporation Public Company Limited to provide improved access to specialized cancer care in Thailand and throughout the region, according to its press release. The 150-bed oncology center is the first phase of a larger “meditown” development of additional clinics, research, biotech, and related university programs; the campus will also include a hotel and wellness spa.

In China, the developer behind the private Xi’an Zhongda International Hospital was keen to develop an equally attractive destination for healthcare. “There was a desire for the exterior of the building to have a cultural connection to the city—to the heritage of the city,” says Principal Cristobal Mayendia, a key player in expanding the firm’s healthcare work in emerging international markets.

A rendering for the aerial exterior of Xi’an Zhongda International Hospital in Xi'an, China

A rendering of the Xi’an Zhongda International Hospital highlights modern geometric forms that echo the precise, defined edges often seen in Chinese seals, symbolizing a bridge between the past and the present.
Rendering © Perkins Eastman

Xi’an Hospital is adjacent to a high-end senior living community the developer is also building, so the design is meant to enhance the connections between the two. “We pride ourselves in always trying to create a campus and not just a building,” Mayendia says. “We focus on the urbanistics around the building, the site design, the landscape, and how to make these hospitals great, pleasant environments.”

Community Connections

Even public clients are focused on connecting hospitals to their surrounding communities. In Singapore, the new 25-story, 1,380-bed Alexandra Hospital and its adjacent outpatient clinic are planned to connect seamlessly with a dense urban setting.

A rendering of Alexandra Hospital in Singapore, showing a lush outdoor living room in the foreground

Alexandra Hospital in Singapore is programmed to be at the center of public parks and trails, blurring the division between the hospital community and the public. Rendering © Alexandra Hospital

Harper’s team programmed its design around a public “community boulevard” that meanders through the entire complex; the public pathway connects to an outdoor food court and a shaded outdoor living room, and it leads to a new bike and pedestrian trail being converted from an old railway line, which, in turn, connects the hospital complex to a wellness infrastructure network of parks, recreation trails, and bike lanes in development throughout the city. “The design of the redevelopment of AH is a tribute to nature’s healing touch, with gardens and greenery to foster recovery and rejuvenation,” a narrator intones in a video about the project.

Creative License

The firm’s work across Asia complements a significant portfolio in the Middle East, where its Dubai studio works closely with its Asia counterparts. Overseas work has allowed designers to stretch their wings creatively, says Senior Associate Xie Xin, the healthcare practice’s lead interior designer. Big-name US hospital clients typically have detailed design standards and know what they want, she says, equating the designers’ role as that of a home chef, working with specific ingredients to create solutions for the client’s needs, “but for overseas projects in Asia and sometimes in the Middle East, it’s a different story. They heavily rely on our judgment, on our experience, and our recommendations, and they prefer to be given a big menu that includes everything.” To that end, Xie frequently finds herself going beyond interior design to get involved in medical planning and hospital operation. She’s also been educating clients in areas such as sustainability and material health. “They value this package of knowledge to be what makes us stand out from other firms,” she says.

From Harper’s standpoint, the Asia healthcare practice is poised for growth. “We’re building backlog and experience and growing our track record so our local staff can deliver these projects locally,” he says, while he and US-based leaders such as Hess and Xin make frequent trips to the region. They’ve formed key partnerships along the way, entering joint ventures and collaborations with architecture, engineering, construction, and strategic consulting firms in the region to pursue opportunities. And since the Amata master plan was awarded to Perkins Eastman with funding assistance from the USTDA, the agency has introduced the firm to several more potential clients in Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. “Clients and consultants know we’re in the region,” Hess says. “Word of mouth is getting around that we’re there, we’re committed, and we’re establishing a portfolio of built work. That’s key as we move forward.”