For a New Generation of Hospitals
Modular Construction SUED2 and Technical Center, University Hospital Zurich
Precisely planned and focused on healing processes: Within the overall renovation of the University Hospital, two key infrastructural buildings, the SUED2 treatment wing and the new technical center, are being constructed. They ensure medical care and energy infrastructure during the renovation phase and beyond.
As part of the overall renewal of the USZ, we were responsible for two central subprojects: On the one hand, the provisional treatment wing SUED2 was to create a highly installed, flexibly usable exchange area that secures hospital operations during the construction phases. On the other hand, a new underground technical center was to be created to ensure the basic technical supply for future needs.
Architecture that follows human needs
Healing architecture and technology intersect in the new construction SUED2: In the interior, light guidance and color design create a positive, warm atmosphere. A biodynamic lighting concept for rooms in the middle zone without direct daylight supports the users' biorhythms. Spatial structuring and color accents in calming ocean blue provide orientation and clarity in the corridors.
The patient areas are consistently positioned along the facade, benefiting from an attractive view of the hospital park with old trees. The service rooms in the inner zone ensure efficient hospital operations.
Serge Fayet
Head Architect in Zurich
Creating Flexibility, Ensuring Operation
The SUED2 is constructed as a steel skeleton with composite concrete-steel floors. This construction method allows the column-free span of the magnetic resonance center with a span of 27 meters. Medical treatment areas are distributed over five floors, which are flexibly adaptable thanks to a statically independent building structure and a neutral facade grid. Directly below the new building, the new technical center extends over two floors, delving ten meters deep underground between energy ducts and the magnetic resonance center.
The striking projection of the building on the fourth floor marks the location of the state-of-the-art burn-intensive care unit. The connection to the existing building is made through a glass-encased passerelle section, which, with its ramps, bridges the differing floor heights between the listed bed houses and the highly elevated new building.
Underground Energy Supply
A new technical center connects to the existing supply network via a bypass tunnel, thus ensuring the energy supply of the entire area. The location was chosen based on the need for short line lengths to minimize power losses and for proximity to the existing technical hub (energy channel, cross shaft, and joint). The new technical center supplies the core zone of the university hospital and provides power for the existing Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center located underground in the park.
