Diakonie-Klinikum, Schwäbisch-Hall

The new Healthcare Campus North Rhine – Westphalia has been built to serve a clear purpose:  to enhance the international prominence of the German state of North Rhine – Westphalia (NRW) as a center for medical, health-care and related scientific research and expertise. The Healthcare Campus, an ultra-modern complex of buildings, has been built on a 50,000 m²  site in the southeast section of the city of Bochum. It consists of three major components, buildings A, B and C. Buildings B and C were completed in June of this year.

Throughout a five-year planning phase, ZWP Ingenieur-AG played an important role in the project's success. In cooperation with the architecture firm léonwohlhage Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH, ZWP carried out planning using the building information modeling (BIM) process, an interdisciplinary planning method. BIM is superior to conventional planning methods in that it considerably streamlines workflow and planner interactions in the areas of architectural design, statics and  building physics. It integrates a number of key functionalities, including import and export of building models, implementation of relevant process structures and execution of calculations and simulations.

Building B of the campus will be used for instruction and training of students. Comprising six stories, and very clearly structured, with a square floor plan, it features a central court area for relaxation and socializing. In addition to classrooms and administrative offices, which account for the majority of its rooms, Building B houses a number of "settings," or special spaces in which various instructional and training simulations can be set up for students, such as hospital operating rooms, nursing stations and intensive-care units. To enhance authenticity and realism, the setting spaces include special installations such as compressed air connections and other equipment and fittings typically found in hospital rooms.

Building C, a cube structure, has an expansive foyer on its ground floor. It provides access to a spacious, bright cafeteria and a large lecture hall, the "Audimax."

In keeping with their considerable space requirements, the ventilation plants for the two buildings have been installed on the buildings' roofs. Planning called for the buildings to be fitted not with active cooling systems but with ventilation systems using adiabatic exhaust-air cooling. The systems cool the exhaust air by humidifying it. Then, in a combined circulation system, heat exchangers use the cooled exhaust air to cool intake air. The system, which is highly energy-efficient, and is able to reduce summer intake-air temperatures effectively and precisely, eliminates the need for a central air conditioning system.

Buildings B and C are also both equipped with chillers; they are used to cooling server rooms, classrooms and the Audimax.

The buildings are heated centrally, with district heat provided by Bochum's municipal utility.

© 3D planning: ZWP Ingenieur-AG