The AMC has various top-referral specialties. These include cardiovascular diseases, immunology and infectious diseases, diseases of the digestive system (surgery and internal medicine), metabolic diseases, gynecological oncology, specialized care in early pregnancy, prenatal diagnostics, pediatric oncology, pediatric immunology/ hematology, vascular disorders of the brain, severe hearing disorders, schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and deep brain stimulation for severe obsessive-compulsive disorders. Besides these specialties the AMC has also been allocated various top clinical functions by the Dutch government. These are functions that provide medical treatments and services in limited number of hospitals, this due to high costs and required expertise. The AMC’s allocated top-clinical functions include kidney dialysis and kidney transplantation, open heart surgery, radiotherapy, neurosurgery, neonatology and nuclear medicine.

The AMC tries to distinguish itself from other hospitals through seven core areas of medical research. These are: cardiovascular diseases, immunity and infections, gastrointestinal diseases, metabolic disorders, neurological and psychiatric disorders, oncology and epidemiology & public health. All of these core areas covers the whole spectrum of medical research: from fundamental biomedical, translational and clinical research to the evaluation of new medical methods and techniques.

Infectious diseases and immunity
In a Dutch and international context, AMC researchers are working on the development of drugs and the evaluation of combination therapies for HIV/AIDS. Another line of research focuses on the development of vaccines, and bacterial research concentrates on pneumonia, meningitis and septicemia. Treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis are also being studied, with researchers concentrating mainly on the inhibition of proinflammatory proteins by means of an inactivated virus. Phagocytes, dendritic cells and T-cells are the central focus of fundamental immunological research.

Oncology
Most of the research in the core area of oncology concerns the molecular and biochemical backgrounds of cancer. There are four lines of research: gastrointestinal oncology, hematological oncology, pediatric oncology and neuro-oncology. The focus of the research is the hypothesis that only cells of one certain type – called cancer stem cells – cause tumors to grow and spread. The pediatric oncology research covers everything from fundamental research (genetic profiling) to clinical research. Much attention is focused on new drugs, and the later effects of oncology therapy.(AMC, 2009)

In the spirit of the original principles of the core principles for redevelopment of the AMC are flexibility and standardisation. Within these principles safety and patient-centrality. The different phases of care will be more separated and then accordingly relocated within the hospital network. These phases include diagnostics, treatment, screening, after care, nursing and caring.

Another important aspect of the AMC is the increase in scientific research, in quantity (promotions and publications) as well as quality (research funds and impact scores). It is important for the AMC to remain as one of the top UMC research institutes. Through international cooperation it remains a key player within its core areas as previously mentioned. To increase its international presence valorisation is promoted from start-up companies.

The functional state of the bedroom towers has decreased under an acceptable level for modern medicine. Therefor these towers need to be redeveloped to once again live up to the modern standards. Another problem is that there is hidden vacancy within the towers. Theoretical one full tower could be removed or repurposed.

The research and treatment centre forms the core of the AMC, these function feature high investment costs, complex housing and growth. The functions feature policlinics, research centres e.g. but in the future the policlinic functions need to grow. In order to achieve this sub functions have to be segregated, that would mean that research functions are supposed to be clustered as for the other functions.

AMC functions remarkable well for its age when it comes down on patient care. But the wayfinding, approach and entering of the area and the complex are out dated. The current main entrance and the policlinic entrance are out dated, not representative and don't contribute to the welcome feelings patients and visitor should have.

Flexibility plays a role within the strategy to make more efficient use of the current facilities. This means that employees will have to share their office facilities with employees from other facilities. Therefore reducing 70 offices spots per 100 employees. Another aim is the redevelopment of internal spaces so that they can be used for one main purpose like offices, waiting, research, consultant rooms e.g. and not just for one specific department.(AMC, 2016)

Since the board of the AMC does not want to demolish the current building it means that the current building has to be transformed. The diffeculty with that is that a running hospital cannot simply be shut down. Appointments, surgercies and threatments are planned far ahead and what to think for the sterile research facilities that have to transported without any external influences on what is being researched. Therefor the AMC has to remain in function and with that come constrains in order to keep the atmosphere of the building as it is. The constraint that are set by the AMC are:

1. During transformation the hospital should remain in function. That would imply that a phased devellopment plan should be develloped.
2. The redevellopment should remain within the current boundries of the building. Excluding the entrences of the building and the renewed landscape plan.
3. The concrete structure should remain in place and should remain visible.

Medical centers are complicated buildings to design, often these buildings house a wide range of different functions with each of them having different requirements. In order to house these functions hospitals tend to be very large. Therefor a (re)design of a hospital building is very time consuming. Time that is not available within the graduation course. Therefor the design will be focused on a specific fragment.

The reduction in design space also implies a reduction in the amount of functions. The fragment will therefor house the functions below.

The image above is based on the current occupation of functions but as a mentioned this occupation can already be reduced for the functions of patient housing and offices. There for the image below will form the starting point for the further functional distribution.

On of the future prospects for hospitals is that they will shrink in size. This reduction is cause by various different influences. These influences are often caused by technological and clinical advancements with influences on different functions within the hospitals. For the design of the fragment these advancements have different impacts on the different spaces.

Electronic medical records in connected health, primary care, demografic, diagnosis, lab, medicarion, medical history, digital health data, big data, Surgery through machinery. Personal health records (PHRs)
Patient portals
Mobile health and medical apps
Communication tools and social networks
Wearable technologies and sensors

molucalar, nano, genome, personalised medicine, Virtual and augmented reality, 3d printed organs.

But this is not what a hospital should cause any patients. It is here where architecture could play a role, a role to prevent these negative emotions from ever occuring and put patients at ease. Research done to find out which design factors matter to patients to create a healing environment. It proposes six themes with associated design characteristics to improve the healing environment; Spatial comfort, Privacy, Autonomy, Sensory comfort, Safety and security, and Social comfort.

The purpose of the research was to find out which design characteristics are more important to the patients than others. Concluding with an advice on which factors should be paid with more attention. It has founded that if hospitals would be transformed into healing environments they should focus on the spatial comfort, safety and security, autonomy and their associated design characteristics.

For spatial comfort it would mean that rooms should be large. It should provide views with sky and green, appealing materials, personal storage space, and space for private conversations.

When it comes to safety and security within the hospital patients appreciate a clear transition form public to private, where unauthorized persons will have restricted access to certain areas. Within the rooms focus should be on lighting, safe personal storage and the ability to call personnel from the rooms.

Many of these characteristics already show some form of autonomy. Another important factor is for patients to have their own influence on what food and drinks the patients consume.But also the possibility to determine resting periods, indoor climate settings and inclusion with decision for treatment.(Schreuder, Lebesque, & Bottenheft, 2016)

While designing all the six themes matter and all their corresponding design characteristics but these previously mentioned characteristics should be integrated with larger importance.

This project revolves around the growing of architecture by application of mycelium. Mycelium is the vegetative part of fungi. This biological tissue/ material is composed from tube-like fibers. These fibers are called hypha and are approximately 1 lm in diameter. Hypha grow by elogation of the apical tip. Which means that the fibers grow faster in the tips than in its branches. On occasion these fibers branch out and merge with other hyphae. As a consequence a random fibernetwork structure is formed; The mycelium (Lull et al., 2005).

Mycelium can be grown in multiple forms, (pure) mycelium, synthetic mycelium and composite mycelium. The last one will be the main focus of this material study since this is the form that is most used within the product development and the built environment. The composite is a mixture of mycelium mixed with a organic substrate most preferably a lignocellulosic biomass. Mycelium than forms it's network of hyphae on and through the substrate by (partly) consuming the substrate. It then transforms the substrates biomass into chitine (up to 45%), Protein and polysacharides. As a result of this process mycelium and the substrate are bonded into the mycelium composite (Tazelaar, 2017).

The usage of mycelium as a building component is relatively new. Therefor there is not much research available involving this subject. Besides that mycelium is a biocomposite with many different possibilities for substrate, that fact makes it even more harder to determine average structural properties. In the table below structural properties are shown of mycelium in comparrision to EPS and concrete. EPS is shown since the characteristics of mycelium and EPS are very similiar as are their usages within product development. While concrete is shown as it is a widely used within the build environment.

As seen the structural properties are very similair when it comes down to their compressive strengths. While the young's modulus shows that mycelium is more flexible than EPS. With the mycelium flexibility it is also able to better deal with flexural forces than EPS. But the best the reason why mycelium is better for usages than EPS is its low energy consumption for production and it's biodegradable properties.