Today, on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) at Campus Lübeck celebrated the topping-out ceremony of the Medical Center of the Future with the traditional address, thanks to the architects and workers, a plea for God’s blessing and a ceremonial wreath that was pulled up with the combined strength of the speakers and the site foreman. The new six-floor building completes the structural inventory of the hospital, while at the same time reorganizing the basic structure. With the annex, the UKSH gets a new, generous entrance area with direct connection to the parking garage.  The clinical disciplines move close together spatially, and they can be reached comfortably through the centrally located entrance:  The short ways make the UKSH faster and more effective through a more efficient infrastructure.

“This construction at Campus Lübeck is an example of Schleswig-Holstein’s future. It is impressive what has been done here so far. When the sites in Kiel and Lübeck are opened, the UKSH will be one of the largest and most modern medical centers in Europe”, said the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein Daniel Günther.

“With its outstanding scientific and medical expertise, the UKSH is of crucial importance for the city of Lübeck – not only as a medical center, but also as a place of innovation and science and as an employer. I am delighted that the UKSH ensures, with this structural milestone in the heart of the growing university district, that our city will continue to be a place of leading-edge medicine as well as of innovative research and teaching in the future”, said Bernd Saxe, mayor of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck.

“Two years after the laying of the foundation stone, we are now celebrating the topping-out ceremony, having traveled half the way to the UKSH of the future”, said Prof. Dr. Jens Scholz, CEO of the UKSH. “A new building rises to meet the highest demands on the medicine of the future. Our goal is to ensure that our patients and employees feel comfortable in the bright and friendly atmosphere, which at the same time enables optimal medical care at the highest level.”

With the new construction, the existing hospital is extended by a new main building with a gross floor area of 65,000 m² on six floors. The departments, which had previously been housed in temporary accommodations, are going to be integrated into the central complex, including the interdisciplinary emergency department, surgery, urology, diagnostic units, and a central surgical unit with 24 operating rooms (two of which are hybrid and four outpatient ORs), ICUs, five standard care wards, and three optional service wards. On the roof of the new building, a helipad is going to be built. Modern and spacious windows ensure a pleasant appearance. A friendly and light-flooded ambience gives patients confidence and supports recovery.

The infrastructure of the new hospital also provides physicians, who are simultaneously scientists, as well as nurses and therapists with the best conditions to meet the challenges of medicine in the 21^st century. The individual fields of research move into close proximity to each other, allowing more complex conditions to be effectively diagnosed and treated. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hendrik Lehnert, President of the University of Lübeck, said

“The University of Lübeck congratulates the UKSH on the topping-out ceremony of this impressive landmark building. As close partners on a shared campus, the university and the hospital benefit from each other’s respective development steps. This is an advantage for the location Lübeck, which now enjoys a national and international reputation. I wish everyone who is going to work at the new UKSH, and all patients who are treated there, the best conditions, satisfaction, and success. To a happy completion of the building!”

For the entire new building, around 65,000 cubic meters of concrete are needed – of these, 16,000 m³ for the foundation alone. The finished shell comprises 6,200 tons of steel. The entire exterior of the new building in Lübeck covers slightly more than 20,000 m², which corresponds to about three soccer pitches. The base area of​the new building is pervaded by window strips, so that the total area of​the windows amounts to about 9,250 m². For the base of the new building in Lübeck, red facing bricks were chosen, which resume a typical theme from North German architecture and thus match the appearance of the existing buildings. “A very large number of people have contributed to the planning and construction of this modern healthcare facility, who have furthered it with their wishes and ideas, with their expertise, their experience, and their dedication. Thanks to this good cooperation and our expertise as an international healthcare provider, we have been able to quickly reach this important milestone on the way to the university medical center of the future”, said Walter Troger, Managing Director of VAMED Vienna. “We are very proud to participate in the building of this project of such paramount importance to Schleswig-Holstein – and we are working on it wholeheartedly”, said Marcus Koch, Chairman of the Board of Management, BAM Deutschland AG.

Between 220 and 250 employees currently work on the construction site every day to complete the new hospital.

With the implementation of the construction master plan, the two locations of the UKSH get a uniform architectural language. This is to bestow recognition value on the brand UKSH and emphasize the togetherness of the sites Kiel and Lübeck. For the future of the UKSH, at the Kiel and Lübeck locations two specially designed, site-unique, functionally optimal new buildings connected in a “corporate architecture” are being built. “The large hospital of the former Lübeck Medical College, which was planned in 1978 and architecturally trendsetting, is the origin of the current construction and reconstruction planning”, explained Thomas Jansen, Managing Director of TSJ Architekten.

The starting point for the hospital of the future was the laying of the foundation in September 2015. Handover of the building is planned for spring 2019.