Sathya Sai Hospital

The story of the design and construction of the magnificent Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital [/], Puttaparthi, A.P., India in 1989–90.

The client on this occasion was Isaac Tigrett, who commissioned Keith (and a team of engineers and architects) to design the hospital that Tigrett was organising, having donated a large part of the proceeds of the sale of his European Hard Rock Empire to the scheme.

To initiate the project Keith Critchlow and Jon Allen, the project architect on both the Hospital and Brockwood Park, were persuaded by Isaac Tigrett to accompany him to Bangalore in India to meet Sri Sathya Sai himself, here the project was conceived. On the day of the site viewing, he watched no less than five eagles circling in the sky above, this was a good omen, he told me.

Keith began his design by drawing the main elevation of what was to become, within little over a year, a 300-bed working hospital – The inspiration behind the design of this building was of a figure sitting with encircled arms around a court yard, Critchlow was careful to include the natural world into the design, as he believed in order to heal one must not lose contact with nature. There were to be many changes to the original design, but it is this elevation that has remained closest to the original intention.