We were invited to compete in a design competition for this 1000 bed hospital by Italian architect friends only a week before the submission date. However exactly seven days after we started work, a comprehensive set of drawings including plans at 1:200 scale, elevations, site plan, perspective and a design report were flown back to Italy, and our submission won the competition. Based on the British horizontal hospital model, the design was a revolution for Italy where high-rise hospitals were still the fashion. Four hospital streets radiate from a central cloistered entrance piazza, while the buildings, which are arranged around courtyards, vary in height from six storeys at the centre to two at the periphery. Low pitched tiled roofs, shaded terraces, cream rendered walls and dark green shutters give the complex the appearance of a small Neopolitan town or 'cittadina'.