Client
Helsebygg Midt-Norge, for St Olav's Hospital and NTNU
Function
Hospital, auditorium, main library, and facilities for research and education
Discipline
Design Team Management, Collaborative Project Leadership, Architect
Requirements
Europe’s first hospital building constructed to passive house standards
Function and Architecture
The Knowledge Centre faces south toward the central square of St. Olavs Hospital, Olav Kyrres Plass. The building consists of approximately 50% clinical hospital areas and 50% university facilities for NTNU, including:
- Specialized laboratories
- St. Olavs’ most technically advanced ward, the infection unit with airborne isolation rooms
- Outpatient clinics for dermatology and pain treatment
- NTNU areas for research, teaching, and student use
- Auditoriums, main library, offices
- Pharmacy, café/restaurant opening onto Olav Kyrres Plass
The building is fully integrated into the larger hospital complex, connected by culverts and bridges to other clinical centers, and completes the 15‑year, 200,000 m² expansion of St. Olavs into Trondheim’s new hospital district.
The Knowledge Centre houses the hospital’s two large auditoriums with 380 and 160 seats, gathered beneath a 1,000 m² double‑curved, free‑spanning timber structure with integrated skylights.
Interior design emphasizes exposed natural materials: visible timber structures, staircases in oiled steel, stabilizing walls in exposed concrete, acoustic damping behind walnut slats, and terrazzo tile flooring
The facades of the building constitute a large, integrated ornamental project, developed in close collaboration with artist Anne Aanerud and the architect. The sun shading has a black graphic print on a white canvas, solid wall surfaces have white-enamelled ventilated glass cladding with corresponding holes against the black back wall.
When sunlight strikes the backdrop wall facing Olav Kyrres Plass, the façade’s expression shifts throughout the day, guided by solar and energy concepts. The screen fabric and wall together create a unified composition inspired both by the traditional Norwegian selbuvott pattern and timeless Arabic motifs. A large brise soleil provides shade and reduces heat on the south‑facing front façade. All façade materials are maintenance‑free.
On the ground floor, the “Knowledge Portal” serves as the university hospital’s advanced learning and presentation system with state‑of‑the‑art interactive technology, located alongside the café/restaurant opening onto Olav Kyrres Plass. The Centre also houses a medical museum.
As a standalone building and as part of St. Olavs Hospital, the Knowledge Centre has received numerous awards:
- World Architecture Festival i Singapore , «INSIDE Award 2013», Singapore 2013. The knowledge centre won the healthcare category for interior works, based, among other things, on the quality of the interior materials used, with exposed natural materials.
- 10th Design & Health World Congress, «Academy Awards», Toronto 2014. St Olav's Hospital og and the knowledge centre won the 1st prize in 7 out of 10 categories during "Academy Awards".
Winner of the best international healthcare project of over 40,000 m2. Record of the number of categories won in the history of D&H.
- World Architecture News «WAN Award Sustainable Building of the Year 2014». The knowledge centre was a finalist, one of the 6 best project internationally with regard to environment in 2013, independent of building category.
- «Attraktiv by – Statens pris for bærekraftig steds- og byutvikling» (Attractive City – The Government Award for sustainable Location and City Development), awarded to Trondheim for St Olav's Hospital including the knowledge centre, by Minister Jan Tore Sanner in June 2015.
- «Innovasjonsprisen 2015" (The Innovation Award 2015) – St. Olav's Hospital and the knowledge centre were awarded the Government's main award for universal design as well as the category for architecture and landscape architecture. Awarded every 4 years.
- «Bolig og byplanprisen» (The Housing and City Planning Award), Trondheim 2015 – St Olav's Hospital
- «Statens Byggeskikkpris 2013», (The Government Architecture Award 2013), St Olav's Hospital and the knowledge centre received honourable mention, Oslo
- «Murprisen» 2008 (The Brick Award 2008), Trondheim to St Olav's Hospital
- «Norsk Forms Hederspris» 2007 (Norsk Form's Honorary Award 2007), Oslo, to St Olav's Hospital
- «Trondheim Kommunes byggeskikkpris»
(2007) (The Trondheim Municipality Architecture Award 2007), Trondheim, St Olav's Hospital
Environmental requirements
The Knowledge Centre at St. Olavs Hospital is Europe’s first hospital building constructed to passive house standards. When completed in 2013, its calculated energy demand was approximately 45% below regulatory requirements, resulting in annual savings of around 2 million kWh. The project was therefore supported by Enova with a grant of six million NOK. The passive house standard was achieved through a unique collaboration between architects and engineers in the advisory group Team St. Olav, together with the client Helsebygg Midt-Norge and contractors Veidekke and Caverion.
Energy efficiency shaped every aspect of the planning process. Demand was reduced through passive measures such as additional insulation, superior airtightness, and heat recovery. Other strategies included differentiated low-energy lighting, artistically designed external solar shading, and demand-controlled regulation of lighting and air volumes.
Implementation
The project was carried out as a turnkey contract with collaborative partnering, based on a contractor competition with a target price established after the partnering phase. It served as a pioneering project in the innovative use of BIM, VDC, and LEAN methodology, developed in collaboration with Stanford University in California and Porsche Consulting, particularly in relation to takt planning of construction.
The building was completed to a high standard, on time and within budget.
