Description

The abundant use of wood and views inside and out create a calm but stimulating environment for patients at Haraldsplass Hospital. Oriel windows facing onto the atria provide a sheltered place to observe the hustle and bustle of daily clinic routine, relieving boredom during long hospital days. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the patient rooms afford a view over the city in the valley or out onto the countryside, encouraging a swifter recovery.

The new extension to Haraldsplass Hospital, built at the foot of Mount Ulriken in 1940, extends the hospital’s accident and emergency capacity by providing 170 additional beds. The five-storey building has a wood frontage with a kink that follows the course of the Møllendalselven river beneath the hospital, and the comparatively low proportion of glazed surfaces ensures a good energy balance. Almost all the patient rooms overlook the city of Bergen and its port, and have a view across the valley, which patients can enjoy from their beds thanks to fixed floor-to-ceiling window sections. The rooms to the rear enjoy a view of the wooded hillside of the mountain.

In contrast to many hospitals, there are no long corridors. Instead, the various functions are distributed around two open atria at the heart of the pentagonal building, which ensures efficient logistics, flexibility and proximity between caregivers and patients. The wards are arranged in a ring around these covered atria, which allow daylight to spill into the heart of the building and serve as communal areas for communication and orientation. Small oriel windows project from the atria walkways as “boxes”, creating sheltered seating areas with views into the atria and across to other levels of the hospital. While single rooms predominate, a smaller number of two-bed and three-bed rooms are also provided. The bathrooms are typically arranged in pairs between the rooms, leaving the rooms open and unobstructed. Both the rooms and the bathrooms are barrier-free.

The striking wooden framework of the façade hints at the abundance of wood in the interior. The atria are clad entirely in wood, as are the windows in the patient rooms. The flooring likewise has a wood decor. Wall-mounted cabinets for the patients’ belongings add a colourful accent in the rooms and make it easier to clean the floors. Low-maintenance materials are used throughout to ensure maximum longevity.

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Originally published in: Wolfgang Sunder, Julia Moellmann, Oliver Zeise, Lukas Adrian Jurk, The Patient Room, Birkhäuser, 2020.