Herlev Hospital
Location: Herlev
Client: Region Hovedstaden
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Flemming Rafn Thomsen, Christian Kuczynski, Ulla Hornsyld
Collaborators: Henning Larsen Architects, Friis & Moltke, Orbicon Leif Hansen, Norconsult, NNE Pharmaplan, Brunsgaard & Laursen
Design phase: 2010
Realization: 2012-2017
Area: 8 ha.
Type: 1st prize, invited competition
Since its construction in 1976, Herlev Hospital has been one of the most impressive buildings from the late modernist period in Denmark.
With its clearly differentiated building elements, its technological qualities and its focus on optimal patient care, the hospital has been a beacon for hospital construction up through the last part of the 20th century.
Today, however, modern man lives very differently than just a few decades ago. Lifestyle diseases, stress and an accelerated urbanization has led to new human conditions which a modern hospital must necessarily relate to. The Capital Region of Copenhagen therefore invited five consortia to participate in a competition for the expansion and modernization of Herlev Hospital. SLA’s consortium won the competition.
In the design of Herlev Hospital, SLA’s landscape utilizes the latest health research that unambiguously points to the great restorative value in prioritizing natural elements in our environment. Blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and other body stress indicators fall measurably after only a few minutes of contact with nature.
Several studies also indicate that both patients and staff in buildings overlooking surroundings dominated by green thrive better, heal faster, are healthier and more efficient than in environments without contact to nature.
At Herlev Hospital the nature will not only play a vital role around the buildings, but right at the core of the building in the form of courtyards, roof gardens and a green heart in the center of the hospital.
The new landscape for Herlev integrates with the area's existing green areas and adds four new landscape levels that adjust to the specific users of the building and their current treatment situations.
Each courtyard room has its own landscape theme that adapts to its specific users. Here the landscape’s natural elements are concentrated to optimize their positive effect on patients and relatives. The courtyards will thus be small, lush worlds within the great structure.
The Green Yard around the canteen and auditoriums will attach the new and old buildings, and become the green heart of the new hospital. The heart will have the character of a secret garden where all the hospital’s users can relax to the view of the expressive auditoriums which still remains a central motif of the hospital. The garden’s idiom is 'curled' to offer as many sitting edges, secret niches and elements that contain a high biodiversity, water mirrors and intimacy as possible.
The arrival space plays an important role as a sensuous and mitigating element. Here the landscape offers concentrated fragments of nature at a human scale at the foot of the high tower, while also providing a 'sneak preview' of the many green universes inside the hospital. The fragments will be a mix of art and nature, designed in collaboration with artistic consultants.
The roof gardens will help the delaying and evaporation of rainwater at the hospital, using various sorts of moss and grass. The roofs will thus be a kind of 'green graphics', changing expressions with the weather and the seasons, which can be experienced from the buildings and the tower.
The surrounding City Park is expanded with links to the adjacent park space. The flat area to the south will have the character as a temporary urban space where the connection between the city center and the Cultural Axis of Herlev Hospital is amplified. Here a dense poplar forest will be planted, providing a variety of recreational functions for the hospital users and the citizens of Herlev alike, closely linking together the city and hospital.
Overall, SLA’s landscape sets the scene for a unique and healing hospital environment. At Herlev Hospital sensuality, poetry, games, art and learning join together in a science-based landscape design.
With SLA’s landscape, a symbi-osis between hospital and its surroundings is created where each element is part of a natural cycle. The result is a 'hospital of the senses', which again will make Herlev Hospital an exemplary and innovative focal point for modern hospital buildings.
