Herzog & de Meuron completes Switzerland’s largest children’s hospital

With 114 rooms, the new University Children’s Hospital Zurich is the largest healthcare facility for children and adolescents in Switzerland. Located in a residential neighborhood, the roughly CHF761 million (US$887 million) project comprises two buildings: an acute care hospital and a research and teaching facility.

The acute care hospital functions like a town, with the medical specialties as neighborhoods. On each of the hospital’s three floors, a central main street runs past the green courtyard, providing orientation and allowing sunlight into the building. 

The patient rooms are located on the hospital’s top floor. Each room has been designed like a wooden cottage with its own roof—providing both privacy and a view of the outdoors. The staggered rooms have rooftops at varying inclines, emphasizing the singular identity of each patient. The rooms also offer enough space for parents to spend the night with their children.

The hospital’s abundant daylight, outdoor views, and biophilic design aim to contribute to healing, according to a statement from the design architect, Herzog & de Meuron.

The white, cylindrical teaching and research building features an open, five-story atrium in the center. The research fields are arranged around this central core to encourage collaboration and communication. The building has one 320-seat lecture hall and two 100-seat seminar rooms, as well as study areas. With movable walls, the lecture/seminar rooms, lobby, and café can be reconfigured to form one large event space that can accommodate 670 people. On the floors above, research laboratories and accompanying offices have unobstructed views of the surrounding landscape.

Boulders unearthed during construction have been placed in and around the buildings. The project team also planted over 250 trees. 

On the building team:
Design architect: Herzog & de Meuron
Architect of record: ARGE KISPI (Herzog & de Meuron and Gruner)
Electrical engineer: Amstein + Walthert
Plumbing engineer: Ingenieurbüro Riesen
Structural engineer: ZPF Ingenieure
Building automation and smart building: Jobst Willers Engineering
Construction manager: Gruner