Reconstruction of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University Hospital

Cor Wagenaar, Noor Mens

Description

Only about 6 % of the investments in healthcare facilities in Germany are channeled toward the construction of new buildings – the majority of projects are renovations of the existing building stock such as the Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt. Built in the late 19th century on the outskirts of the city, the original pavilion hospital with its lavish gardens was largely destroyed during the Second World War. In the 1960s, a new central building designed by Godehard Schwethelm and Walter Schlempp as a ‘matchbox-on-a-muffin’, or Breitfuß, was erected. Since the facility was outdated, a renovation of the vertical slab with the patient wards and a total refurbishment of the three-storied pedestal from which it emerges was conducted over 15 years. The first phase expanded the north-south axis that runs perpendicular to the high-rise slab and pierces through it on the eastside. One of the two major traffic arteries, it separates the main part of the ‘muffin’ from a newly added wing to the east of it. This so-called ‘Magistrale’ is marked by a stretched roof on stilts that leads to a large, glazed hall; the roof that covers the exterior part of the Magistrale, which leads to the river Main, creates a spatial and visual counterweight to the high-rise volume, resulting in a balanced architectural composition. Then three existing buildings connected to the ‘muffin’ on its norther edge were renovated; they are used for research and teaching purposes. In 2012 the renovation of the vertical slab with patient wards was completed and the revitalization of the low-rise building on which it sits began. This part accommodates the second traffic artery that cuts through the entire complex from east to west.

Providing the clinic with a second life, the architects succeeded in highlighting the architectural qualities of the 1960s slab. Whereas the redesign of the high-rise building focused on the façade, the renovation of the base resulted in an almost completely new building. Apart from the structural grid of 7.20 m, little of the original structure remained. The new infill houses the department of conservative medicine and laboratories for endoscopy as well as a new central auditorium, but most striking is a spacious entrance hall that is ushered in by a stretched roof and forms part of the Magistrale, connecting the research and educational facilities of the university with the hospital.

In their design competition entry, the architects proposed to reconstruct the hospital as a composition of urban spaces. Their masterplan involved an internal traffic scheme that, apart from the two main axes, envisaged main streets, secondary roads and squares, connecting the different departments in the podium building with the open, elongated patios introduced here. Daylighting, parquet flooring and wooden reception desks create a homely, warm and comforting atmosphere.