Client
Statsbygg and Oslo Universitetssykehus
Area
The main project is approximately 130,000 m² BTA. Total area after the additional building is about 190,000 m² BTA
Function
University hospital, somatic medicine
Discipline
Project group management, architect
Rikshospitalet contains typical hospital functions and a number of special functions in somatic treatment, such as wards, outpatient clinics, emergency ward, treatment rooms, operating rooms, radiology and nuclear medicine, woman and child wing, sampling, laboratory and research areas, intervention centre, cyclotron centre and therapy pool. As a university hospital, the hospital also contains large teaching areas with auditoriums, seminar rooms, teaching laboratories and a university library – as well as circulation areas, administration, staff room, commercial areas, chapel, goods reception and technical areas. The building is located close to nature at Gaustad in the western part of Oslo, with a view of the city and the fjord.
The building is horizontally organised over an extensive base area with a central, glass-covered circulation area extending through all floors of the building, connecting the various building sections. The circulation area – "the glass street" – serves as the main street of the facility with an urban throng of patients, visitors and employees. Central visiting functions such as outpatient clinics, pharmacy, library, kiosk, serving areas, sampling and auditoriums are directly connected to the glass street. Treatment functions are located in a central section divided by atria, with outpatient clinics, radiology and surgery oriented on the floors above with intermediate technical floors. The wards are located like wings mainly on three floors to the east and west, with efficient transport lines to the treatment areas on the opposite side of the glass street. The shape of the terrain is utilized to form a facility that appears low, where the large building stock is separated into volumes of identifiable sizes.
The design of Rikshospitalet has received great acclaim both locally and internationally. Users refer to the building as a well-functioning hospital, even after some twenty years of use. The model for organising hospital functions has later been used as a basis for the planning of several other large hospital projects in Norway and Europe.
Ratio is still engaged in various larger and smaller projecting tasks for Rikshospitalet through a framework agreement with Oslo University Hospital.
