New Surgery / Dermatology building at Universitätsklinikum Ulm

KSP designed the New Surgery / Dermatology building at Universitätsklinikum Ulm in Munich, Germany.

Description from the architects:

New Surgery / Dermatology building at Universitätsklinikum Ulm to open in June 2012

Light, bright and colorful: the architecture of the new Surgical Center on the Oberer Eselsberg in Ulm. The building was designed by the KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten Munich Office, having won the competition in 2001. The Surgical Center / Dermatology blends into the surrounding landscape and, with the “floating” ward block, also sets a distinctive architectural tone.

In June 2012 the six departments of Ulm University Hospital moved into the new Surgery / Dermatology building with their patients. The medical institutions, previously scattered over various sites, are now brought together in the new hospital building which will further improve medical care in the Ulm region.

The Surgical Center provides sufficient space for 15 state-of-the-art operating rooms, 235 regular care and 80 intensive care or monitored beds. The building, which offers gross floor space of around 70,000 sq.m., was completed in four years within the scheduled timeframe and budget.

The architecture: light, bright and transparent

The new building is divided into two sections in terms of both function and design in order to integrate the large volume of the hospital extension building into the natural surroundings with their wooded and green areas. The base structure is a two to three-story building largely embedded in the landscape and with green courtyards. The ward block is positioned above it, a 160-meter-long structure rising up above the natural lie of the land. Across the three stories there are eight ward wings with a total of 235 beds.

The podium structure houses Operative Therapy with 12 operating theaters, the Intensive Care Unit with 80 monitored and care beds, the Outpatient Clinic with three more operating rooms, Emergency Room, Radiology, specialist outpatient departments and Dermatological Center. Eight green courtyards with forest plants allow plenty of daylight into the building.

Jürgen Engel describes the qualities of the new building as follows: “The challenge was to group the various functional aspects into a simple yet expressive architectural form and combine them with the environment. The clear separation of medical treatment and ward block is an innovation in this form. Our concept, which we call the ‘Ulm model’, has already served as the template for further architectural designs in hospital construction. Our spacious, light building is designed to eliminate patients’ fear and the typical feeling of unease people often have in a hospital.”

The new entrance area, a spacious foyer pavilion, contains the service point and patient admission and thus has a central function for the entire University Hospital. From here the main two-story corridor, the central axis, leads to all specialist departments and functional units. The corridor represents the backbone of the building and combines the base structure with the ward block. It features a glazed wall looking out into the landscape and facilitates orientation within the building.

Four atria as architectural highlights

A roughly 8×8-meter atrium can be found at each of the four access cores. Starting at the base structure and extending up through the central corridor and ward block, they direct sunlight all the way down into the lower levels of the functional areas. Central functions on each of the wards such as nursing stations are grouped around the bright atria.

Color makes for a friendly atmosphere

The color concept is based on four warm tones: yellow, orange, red and brown. Each atrium and courtyard is marked with one of these four colors. Color elements in the building are: the glass balustrades at the atria, the central nursing stations on the wards, rooms for patients, window frames in the rendered façade (“moldings”) in the podium area and exterior design and landscaping of the courtyards. Bright and friendly materials create a pleasant atmosphere inside the building for patients, visitors and staff.