Siddhartha Children and Women Hospital

The hospital was founded in November 1998 in Butwal, western Nepal, by a public-private partnership of the Nepali government, Butwal Municipality, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Japanese association AMDA. It describes itself as the first children's and women's hospital outside Kathmandu. It bears Buddha's childhood name, Siddhartha, and lies near his birthplace.

Doctors who had brought aid to victims of the 1995 Kobe earthquake asked Ando, who had given his Pritzker money to the victims, to design the hospital; he did so without a fee. The Japanese newspaper Mainichi started the fundraising, and the construction was paid for by quake victims and by the paper.

The first block Ando designed is the outpatient department. Ando wrote that costs and the local technique available were the project's two main difficulties; he soon saw that he could not reproduce his smooth, high-quality concrete there, and he describes a building that speaks a little differently from his earlier works. He planned a colonnade on the west façade to shelter from harsh sun, and the walls are exposed bricks made on the spot. The overall form is one of cubic volumes.

The hospital treats children and women and has more than a hundred beds. It has neonatal and paediatric intensive care, a round-the-clock emergency service and runs mobile clinics in the surrounding area.