There will be room for healing in the new world-class hospital in North Zealand, designed by the internationally renowned Switzerland-based architects Herzog & de Meuron.
Herzog & de Meuron is particularly known for designing the Olympic stadium (Bird’s Nest”) in Beijing and the Tate Modern in London.
The hospital is built on a 124.000 square meter facility that serves 24 medical departments and provides more than 660 beds. There will be a garden in its center and the hospital is surrounded by nature. To foster exchange across the various departments the architects have chosen a horizontal building construction. Tall hospitals of the last decades have rarely achieved this goal.
The chair of the Copenhagen regional council, Sophie Hæastorp Andersen, looks forward to the opening of the new hospital in 2020: “It is hugely important for the residents in the Copenhagen Region that we get a functional and beautiful hospital that has been carefully planned from the very beginning. Something all citizens in Copenhagen can be proud of.”
“The hospital organically reaches out into the wide landscape. Simultaneously its soft, flowing form binds the many components of the hospital,” says the architects. “It is a low building that fosters exchange between staff and patients, ans it has a human scale despite its very large size.”
This way the architects marriage two seemingly contradictory goals: the desire for a large central garden and the necessity for short internal connections. The result is an organic cross shape.
“All citizens in North Zealand will have easy access to the best treatment in a new hospital that professionals will travel to North Zealand to see,” says Per Seerup Knudsen, chairman of the political reference group.
The landscaping concept consists of two typical Danish landscape typologies. A forest park with clearings for parking lots surrounds the building, while the central garden is Heathland. Circular hedges inhibit views into the pedestal and create the path network of the garden.
This project will be the heart of the new masterplan of Hillerød South.
“Herzog and de Meuron have designed a patient-centered hospital – a beautiful, healing and functional building that supports our patients’ recovery in the best possible way. The hospital’s great strength is its highly successful and fundamental fusion of form and function,” says hospital director Bent Ourø Rørth.
“When you walk through the glass doors, you’ll get an intuitive sense of calm and harmony. A homely feeling. I can easily imagine working in the hospital,” says head nurse Britt Holmgaard, who has been involved in the process as an advisor.
Head consultant Tomas Joen Jakobsen is particularly enthusiastic: “First and foremost, the wards will work really well. They will get light from both sides, the work stations will be near the patients, and there will be good access.” He is adding: “I’ll be proud to drive past with my grandchildren and show them what I’ve helped start.”
Feature image (on top): Main entrance
Hospital of the Future in Denmark, written by Tor Kjolberg
Images © 2014, Herzog & de Meuron Basel