The university district of Zurich comprises the University Hospital, the University of Zurich UZH and ETH Zurich, the Swiss Institute of Technology. Together they form a large campus on a promontory with great views. Numerous buildings of Zurich university hospital no longer meet the criteria for modern medical practice and their combined infrastructural capacity has reached its limits. Christ & Gantenbein’s masterplan emphasises the permeability of the site and transforms it into an open campus. It includes five new buildings, which will join an existing, listed complex to create an urban ensemble ideal for cutting-edge medical research and treatment.
The new hospital infrastructure requires extensive facilities, including underground garages and logistic nodes, separate emergency entrances and check-in areas, medical, surgery, and intensive care units, and numerous rooms for long-term patients.
One of the primary goals of Christ & Gantenbein’s design is to implement the highly specific requirements of a contemporary, complex, and technologically sophisticated medical infrastructure without severing it from the surrounding urban fabric. Several new buildings will be introduced. Combined with the existing building by Swiss architecture firm Haefeli Moser Steiger, they will produce a variety of open spaces fully accessible to patients of the hospital and the population of Zurich. Gardens, courtyards, and terraces will form a practical and atmospheric fusion of old and new. Two buildings will be implemented in the first phase of the development: The first is to serve as the main point of access, accommodating numerous comfortable rooms, where daylight is optimized thanks to an inner courtyard. The other one, a compact and optimized volume, is dedicated to the organization of core medical procedures. Overall, the design presents a persuasive synthesis of urban development, architectural form, and optimal conditions for medical excellence.
The first phase, with the building application to be submitted in autumn 2021, followed by the construction start a few months later, entails these two new volumes. The new buildings will remain considerably below the permissible maximum volumes and are sensitively proportionate in scale to the key historical landmarks and other nearby structures. The two buildings’ facades are multifunctional elements that improve the microclimatic conditions and contribute to increasing biodiversity and energy production, giving the USZ an identity with a contemporary character, embedded in the hospital’s tradition.
The building situated closer to Zurich’s old town is framed by plants. The greenery contributes to the regulation of the local climate, providing sun protection, reducing the warming of the building and increasing biodiversity overall. The greenery is also visible from the inside, which will contribute to the well-being of patients and employees alike as part of its healing architecture.
Photovoltaic elements will be installed on the roof and on the suitable facades of the second house to convert sunlight into energy. They will contribute significantly to a sustainable and low-CO2 energy supply: Energy generation on site, generated through architecture.
The new hospital is required to fulfil the exacting criteria, both in architectural and operational terms. Christ & Gantenbein’s design implements all operational and architectural requirements set forth by medical experts, patients, and staff alike: Its modular floor plans in all the core medical units will ensure that modern medicine’s changing needs are met both now and far into the future.
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LOCATION
Zurich, Switzerland
CLIENT
UniversitätsSpital Zürich, Switzerland
YEAR
2019 – 2028
STATUS
Ongoing
PROGRAM
Healthcare, Urban Planning, Transformation
PRIZE
1st prize
TEAM
Emanuel Christ, Christoph Gantenbein; Mona Farag, Anna Flückiger, Moisés García, Stephanie Müller; Olivia Gerber; Sever Petroy, Catia Polido, Ellena Ehrl, Matthias Schäfges, Juan Pardellas, Florian Gast, Ana Sofia Costa Guerra, Anna Bijak, Cloé Gattigo, Diogo Fonseca Lopes, Alessandro Luraschi, Giorgio Notari, Dimitri Stassin, Jan-Holger Stucken, Marcel Weimar, Jan Zachmann
COLLABORATION
sander.hofrichter architekten
PLANNING
GP Christ & Gantenbein / b+p Baurealisation, Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure, Balliana Schubert, eicher+pauli, PPEngineering, B+S Ingenieure und Planer
