The commission is a close collaboration between our studios in Stuttgart, Malmö and Gothenburg, together with the German practice Telluride Architektur, and includes approximately 70,000 square metres of new construction. The hospital will provide mental healthcare and psychosomatic care for around 600,000 residents in the southern part of the German federal state of Lower Saxony.
White Arkitekter and Telluride Architektur commissioned to design healthcare campus
We are proud to have been appointed, in collaboration with Telluride Architektur, to design the new build and refurbishment of Neubau Asklepios Mental Health Campus Niedersachsen in Göttingen, Germany. On behalf of Asklepios Psychiatrie Niedersachsen GmbH, we are shaping a welcoming campus where new and existing buildings come together to form a coherent whole, closely integrated with the surrounding landscape and community.
We are pleased that the client has recognised our focus on sustainability and evidence-based design – shaping supportive working environments and healing environments in mental healthcare. Through close collaboration with our partner practice, we have been able to unite existing buildings and new development within a coherent and future-ready campus concept.
Frank Wiesemeyer, Lead Architect, White Arkitekter
Between an existing cloister walk and the new entrance building, we are creating a clear focal point where entrances, key functions and main circulation routes meet. This forms a setting for contemporary mental healthcare, where new buildings are carefully integrated with the historic environment, the existing structures and the site’s mature trees. The overall design is conceived as a sustainable and functional healthcare environment, with efficient flows and a phased delivery that allows operations to continue throughout construction.
Asklepios has a clear vision for the future of mental healthcare, centred on openness, destigmatisation, integration with its context, close connection to nature, social interaction and health-promoting environments. Our concept translates this vision into a welcoming and healing setting, where new and existing buildings are brought together within a clear structure and in dialogue with the surrounding landscape.
Cristiana Caira, Lead Architect for the competition proposal, White Arkitekter
– The ‘heart’ is the centre of the campus – a shared meeting place that connects different parts of the site, past and future, as well as rehabilitation and everyday life, continues Cristiana Caira.
As a “great success” describes Joel Hahn, Managing Partner at Telluride Architektur, the collaborative project work.
This is the first time Telluride and White Arkitekter have worked together – on the mhC project – and we’ve hit it off right from the start. We’re delighted to have been awarded the contract and look forward to this journey together.
Joel Hahn, managing partner, Telluride Architektur
Evidence-based design
The design is informed by evidence-based principles and healing architecture, with a focus on human scale, views of greenery and clear wayfinding that makes it easy to navigate and find one’s way. Welcoming entrances, generous access to daylight and careful consideration of children’s perspectives further reinforce this approach. Together, these qualities contribute to a calm and supportive environment for patients, families and staff. They also align closely with guiding principles in mental healthcare – participation, functionality, orientation, social interaction, privacy, connection to nature, atmosphere and safety – all of which have been central to the proposal.
Sarai Metten, head of the design studio at Telluride Architektur, illustrates the Asklepios Mental Health Campus Niedersachsen as a ‘fascinating project, because a completely new campus is being created here that consciously engages with the historic buildings, places healing architecture at the centre, and becomes a place of community with a diverse range of therapeutic services.’
Spaces for care and everyday life
The campus brings together care, treatment, education and everyday functions for both adults and children. Adult mental health is accommodated in care buildings connected by both internal and external walkways. Child and adolescent mental health is located in a building set in a quiet and sheltered position among historic buildings and greenery. Here, the building is broken down into smaller, playfully designed volumes, with close connections to parkland, school and preschool environments.
Greenery plays an essential role in healthcare environments and is integrated throughout the campus – in courtyards and garden spaces, as well as in specially designed outdoor environments for preschool and child and adolescent mental health, offering space for movement, play and rest.
Economic and environmental sustainability shape the proposal. This is reflected in a delivery strategy with few phases and no temporary buildings, a minimised proportion of basement space, and modular, flexible buildings that can be prefabricated and efficiently constructed. Reuse, material recycling and photovoltaic installations also form integral parts of the overall approach.
Team
The team includes Telluride Architektur and White Arkitekter, together with subcontractors landscape architects KRAFT.RAUM and transport planners Ambrosius Blanke.
