Queen Silvia’s Children’s Hospital

The eight-storey hospital will cover 33,000m², with a broad range of facilities including outpatients, intensive care, operating theatres, sterilisation unit and wards, across many medical specialisms, as well as a rehabilitation pool, helipad and library. To create a more home-like, safe and secure healing environment, all patients are accommodated in single rooms, which allow parents to stay overnight and reduces the risks of infections spreading.

We have provided engineering services including mechanical and electrical design, acoustics, systems engineering, logistics and developing and coordinating the building information modelling (BIM) strategy. Extensive use of BIM has been essential to keeping track of 450 systems – including security, lighting, x-ray equipment, electricity and ventilation – and the complex logistics of the project. BIM was used to keep the user and technical requirement specifications in a database connected to the different CAD-tools. BIM was also essential for good communications with the project stakeholders. Planning for how BIM can play a valuable role in maintenance and adaptations throughout the building’s lifecycle is ongoing.

The energy efficient design includes advanced lighting technologies so that lights are only on in occupied rooms, and ventilation that is tailored to the precise need in each space. Flexibility is also a key part of the design – each operating theatre can be isolated from the rest of the building and can therefore be rebuilt with minimal impact on adjoining rooms.

Great effort is also being made to stimulate the children’s imaginations and encourage them to think beyond their illness. There will be facilities for education and therapy, a music studio, play areas for younger children, a dedicated area for teenagers, relaxation spaces and places for activities such as table tennis and video games.

And with technology second nature to young people today, each patient will have their own page on a dedicated site, with information about the day’s events, details of their medication and treatment and a place where they can send questions to the doctors.