We are delighted to have been awarded the contract for the construction of a new laboratory and office building for the German Aerospace Centre

Berlin-Adlershof is a place steeped in history for German aerospace. After the second European airfield for motorised aeroplanes had went into operation there in 1909, Adlershof also became the founding site of the German Research Institute for Aviation (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt – DVL), a predecessor organisation of the German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt – DLR).

DLR is now expanding its building complex at the Berlin-Adlershof site with a new building for the Institute of Propulsion Technology, Department of Engine Acoustics (AT-TRA). The building’s innovation hub will be a two-storey technical centre for various test benches and experimental facilities. In addition, the building will provide laboratory and office spaces.

In accordance with the call for bids, our design proposes a compact building structure that coherently connects to the main access routes of the existing building and completes the building complex on the south-western boundary of the site in compliance with the urban planning concept. With a usable space of 3,042 m² and a gross floor space of 5,670 m², the building achieves a particularly efficient floor space ratio. A roof terrace with a view of the Teltow Canal will provide high-quality lounging areas for the employees. The façade design with large-format windows and aluminium panels creates a technology-oriented overall impression and comprises photovoltaic elements for sustainable operation of the building.

We are very much looking forward to the implementation of this project and congratulate the Berlin team!

The shortlist for the awards announced in April featured outstanding and innovative designs for healthcare buildings. Due to the continued restrictions, this year’s ceremony was held exclusively online.

Prizes were awarded in various categories pushing ahead international architecture in the healthcare sector. In the Healthcare Design (over 25,000 sqm) category, the winner was The North Wing, Rigshospitalet (Copenhagen, Denmark) commissioned by Rigshospitalet and designed by LINK Arkitektur and 3XN, in collaboration with Nickl & Partner Architekten and Kristine Jensens Tegnestue.

We are delighted about this award and see it as a confirmation of our architectural creativity and an exceptional appreciation of our work.

More about Rigshospitalet

More about the European Healthcare Design Awards 2021

Construction work on the new laboratory and research building of ETH Zurich in Basel is progressing.
In the meantime, the façade work has almost been completed and the interior work is in full swing.
We stay tuned!

More information.

Mayantara JAK.ID 2021 was a special collaborative event hosted by Mayantara and HDII DKI Jakarta, with a focus on Interior and Spatial Design as gateway to reach public experience as well as to celebrate Jakarta’s 494th Anniversary. The virtual event was held June 16 to June 18, 2021, as a preliminary event towards Mayantara 2021.

We were honored to be invited to this event in which Mr. Jian Yang, Partner and General Manager, attended a sub-forum presentation on the theme of “Safe Hospital Design in Modern Healthcare”.

During the forum, Mr. Jian Yang, with his many years of design experience in the industry, shared his insights on healthcare architectural design with fellow architectural interior professionals . The conference was a great opportunity for all industry professionals to share knowledge as well as issues related to the design process. Issues which occured in the discussions were the impact of IT on hospital design, how to integrate AI into design, and whether IT can simplify or complicate the design process.

We are very grateful for this excellent networking opportunity and we are looking forward to many more exchanges as well as collaborations that will come!

In a two-stage open competition for the extension and restructuring of the Hôpital d’Yverdon-les-Bains, the design by Nickl & Partner has been awarded 2nd prize.

The hospital built in the spa town of Yverdon-les-Bains on Lake Neuchâtel in the 1980s is part of the Établissements Hospitaliers du Nord Vaudois (eHnv) and an important pillar of the supra-regional health care infrastructure of the Swiss canton of Vaud.

In the coming years, the outdated ensemble is to be comprehensively restructured and extended. The plans had to include a new building and extension area of about 40,000 m² as well as the restructuring of an existing building area of about 15,000 m².

In keeping with the hospital’s location next to the Grand Hôtel des Bains, the Centre Thermal and its spa park, the competition attached special importance to its integration into the urban context. Another challenge was the requirement to implement all construction measures during continuing operation of the hospital.

Nickl & Partner’s design proposes an ensemble of volumes of different sizes and heights. The current main building will be comprehensively refurbished and extended at the top. Smaller pavilions, which will house among other things the operating theatres and intensive care units, will complement the main building. A central, light-flooded reception hall will separate the existing building from the newly added structures and serve on two levels both as a distributor and as a place for communication and meeting.

The jury praised the clear hierarchy of the public and more private hospital areas as well as the ensemble effect of the design und the sensitive integration of the building volumes into the local context.

We are very pleased to have been awarded the 2nd prize and congratulate the team!

We are delighted that Nickl & Partner Architects won the 1st prize in the competition for the Dalian Uni Hospital No.2 Oncology Center.

The new oncology center of the Second People’s Hospital of Dalian, combined with the characteristics of the site, is laid out in a regular manner, with the short side adjacent to Zhongshan Road. Moreover, the simple and modern facade pictogram along the street, the main building is laid out in a rectangular shape, echoing the outpatient building to the left and right, as well as enclosing the central landscape square of the hospital area.

The project will create a modern hospital building image of high quality, brightness, elegance, and generosity through the shaping of the shape, the use of color and the choice of materials, and seek changes in unity. The new oncology complex faces the city road and will become a new highlight of the area after completion.

We are looking forward to proceed with the project and shape an important location in the Dalian healthcare landscape in the future!

Construction of Baden Canton Hospital is in full swing!

Where imposing scaffolding currently still dominates the construction site, a green inner courtyard will soon welcome patients and visitors of the new Baden Canton Hospital (Kantonsspital Baden KSB).

Virtual tour: agnes22.ksb.ch

The shell already shows the impressive dimensions of the new 400-bed building. Despite its imposing volume, eleven inner courtyards will fill the building with daylight.

Construction is progressing steadily and commissioning of the hospital is planned for the end of 2024. The new hospital building will not only meet the highest medical standards, but will also be a place where the focus is on patients’ physical and psychological well-being.

More information

Suzhou Dushu Lake Hospital Phase II Architectural Design Competition We won in 2nd place

Dushu Lake Hospital is located in the southern Chinese city of Suzhou. The competition is based on the existing hospital Phase I as a reference for the Phase II architectural design. The project is planned to have a floor area of 390,000m2 and to have 2,200 beds.

The relationship between Phase I and Phase II will be considered in a comprehensive manner at the planning stage and the results of the overall planning and design will be formed to ensure a reasonable transition between the functions of the two phases and a scientific form of functional zoning and layout.

With the continuous development of medical technology gradually breaking the stereotypical image of hospital architecture, the hospital environment should become more friendly and even leave a good impression on people, while meeting the functional requirements of the hospital. We hope to extract the unique cultural symbols of Suzhou and express them in the language of architectural design to create a unique hospital.

We found the spatial layout and design of the Suzhou gardens to be very clever. The compact layout, the clear flow of space, the orderly opening and closing of indoor and outdoor spaces, the inner logic of the courtyard space linked by a series of curved corridors, and the functional layout of the hospital are in principle strikingly similar.

Once again, congratulations to the Beijing team！

In the competitionline Ranking 2020, Nickl & Partner took 13th place in the architects category (out of 30,000 architecture firms in Germany)!

The ranking based exclusively on competition results is compiled once a year by the editorial team of competitionline and lists the most successful firms in the German-speaking countries.

Click here for the competitionline Rankings of recent years.

We congratulate the teams and look forward to further successful competitions!

Exploring Integrated Design

On March 17, 2021 SZCW Shenzhen Creative Week and 36th Shenzhen International Furniture Design Fair was grandly opened at Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Partner Mr. Jian Yang was honored to be invited to participate as a speaker of the pioneer forum and a member of the roundtable dialogue.

In the forum, Mr. Jian Yang gave a wonderful speech on the theme of “German Building Integrated Design Concept” based on his personal working experience over the years. Through his presentation, we are glad that more architectural colleagues can learn more about the process and ways of German building integration.

We are proud to have been working with the Shenzhen Construction and Public Works Department on the design and construction of the Shenzhen No.2 Children’s Hospital and Shenzhen No.3 Children’s Hospital. As our major project in China, the Shenzhen No.2 Children’s Hospital is not only an integrated design model for medical buildings under the leadership of the Public Works Department, but also incorporates our extensive experience and strengths in the field of medical buildings.

From the government level, to the expert professional level, pioneering forums and roundtable conversations are exploring the relationship between design and people’s livelihoods, and whether integration could be the future trend for new breakthroughs. The power of a single field is limited, but the synergy of integrated design that brings together architecture, interiors and furniture is more than enough to bring the warmth of design to life.

We look forward to a future where the integration of architecture, interior, furniture, and materials is synergistic, with unlimited prospects and a promising future!

Contract awarded for the construction of the new Klinikum Memmingen including a psychiatric clinic and medical care centre

In the public procurement procedure, Nickl & Partner have won the general planning contract for the construction of the new health campus of Klinikum Memmingen.

At yesterday’s city council meeting, Nickl & Partner presented the project to the public.

The design envisages a green health campus whose components – the hospital, psychiatric clinic, medical care centre and car park – are grouped around a common square. The planned new health campus is one of the largest non-university hospital construction projects in Bavaria.

We congratulate the team and are very excited about this new project!

Award-winning competition design for the construction of a new laboratory building at the Julius Kühn Institute in Berlin

The jury commended our design for the laboratory building of the Institute for Ecological Chemistry, Plant Analysis and Stored Product Protection (ÖPV) with around 50 workplaces on the property of the Julius Kühn Institute, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants in Berlin Dahlem.

In addition to fields for crop trials, the site is characterised by its listed old buildings. Our design of a three-storey timber building with green façades fits harmoniously into this context and completes the impression of a building ensemble surrounding a “village green”.

In a non-open competition organised by the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning, Nickl & Partner won the third prize. Congratulations to the team!

We are very pleased to have won the recognition of the expert jury in the ideas and realisation competition for the new hospital building of Ortenau Klinikum in Achern.

In the two-stage competition for the construction of a new clinic with 240-250 beds as well as a medical centre, training and residential buildings in Achern, Nickl & Partner positioned themselves with a loose ensemble of buildings which integrates well into the surrounding fields and adjacent low buildings to the north of the city centre. With its timber façade from sustainable forestry and the use of façade greening in the inner courtyards as well as an integrated building greening and energy concept, the design underlines the approach of ecological and climate-friendly architecture.

We congratulate the team on this achievement!

The about 180 cubic metres of silver fir wood used for the façades of the new Baden Canton Hospital (Kantonspital Baden, KSB) come from the surrounding sustainably managed forest. Attention is also paid to resource and energy efficiency when it comes to the cutting and processing of the wood. Thanks to the commissioning of regional companies, the timber is only moved within a radius of about 126 kilometres around the construction site.

Read more about this in the local newspaper: Baden – Canton Hospital gets a new dress – the wood for it comes from local forests | Aargauer Zeitung (in German)

The well-proportioned, large-format windows of the KSB optimally supply the patient rooms with daylight. The window elements have an integrated ventilation box that allows patients to individually let fresh air into the room in addition to the controlled ventilation.

“You taught me to always push through our ideas and to fight for them. Those experiences made under your guidance still drive me today in my own office!”

Birthday greetings from a former employee who worked with us 19 years ago…

We are pleased that after three years of construction, our new rehabilita-tion clinic on the ukb health campus has been opened.

On a gross floor space of around 21,400 square metres, the new rehabilita-tion clinic now provides 151 beds for the integrative rehabilitation, respir-atory weaning, neurological rehabilitation and sports medicine units.
With its orange-red clinker brick façade, it achieves the balance between independence and integration into the urban context. The 135-metre long structure is subdivided into five segments. The segmentation is reminiscent of the classical formal language of the listed campus buildings with their central and lateral avant-corps. At the same time, the large window open-ings of the façade design leave no doubt as to the innovative and contem-porary character of the clinic.

The room programme includes therapy areas for gait analysis and training as well as physiotherapy and occupational therapy. A Kneipp basin has been integrated into one of the two inner courtyards. All patient rooms were planned as single-bed rooms and most of them have a balcony or loggia. The common areas also include a generously sized dining hall on the top floor with a view over the green campus grounds all the way to Alexanderplatz.

Tired of staring at the screen? Our new book ARCHITECTURE FOR HEALTH has been published and has a really good feel to it.

In this publication, we cover a wide range of the numerous topics which we address every day in the design and planning of health care buildings, from their location in the city and the question of how healthy our urban environment can be to developments in building typology, questions of design, the relationship to art and the inclusion of the user perspective up to the question of which factors will influence hospital construction in the future. So this is neither a monograph nor a textbook, but a presentation of the whole variety of perspectives and approaches that makes for an inspiring read. This holistic look at healthcare construction is enriched by contributions from renowned authors from different disciplines such as healthcare management, psychology, landscape architecture and art history.

Available now in stores or via the publisher.

More information about the publication.

To be continued: ARCHITECTURE FOR SCIENCE. Stay tuned!

We are delighted to have been awarded the contract for the construction of the “New Atrium” building at the site of Trostberg District Hospital.

The “New Atrium” is to comprise a total of three levels, which will accommodate units ranging from psychosomatic medicine to dialysis to oncology. The client is considering to have the new building constructed in timber.

Construction is currently scheduled to start in autumn 2021, as there is still an existing building on the site, which will be removed in spring/summer 2021.

We are happy about this new project!

Nickl & Partner Architekten have won the contract for the quality and coordination management of the new campus of the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) together with the project partners ILF Consulting Engineers and PM1 Projektmanagement.

The renowned Entrepreneurial School MCI plans to move its currently scattered locations across the city to a single campus in the coming years. A prestigious location for the new campus has been found with the so-called “Fenner-Areal” near the old city centre of Innsbruck and in direct vicinity of the listed Hofgarten. The quality and coordination management of the “MCI Campus” project will encompass everything from planning to execution to turnkey construction.

We are pleased to be able to contribute our expertise in the construction of campus, university and research buildings to this major project.

Nickl & Partner Architekten have successfully participated in the Europe-wide architectural competition for the construction of the new Zentralklinikum Georgsheil – a new central clinic in Georgsheil for the clinics Aurich, Emden and Norden in the district of Aurich – and received the second prize.

The focus was on high-quality care geared to the needs of patients in East Frisia. In line with its overriding guiding principle “Allthoop – all together”, the new clinic was to concentrate and pool medical services in eight different functional centres at a central location in the middle of East Frisia.

Our design wants to strengthen the East Frisian sense of community by creating an identity-giving new building in this structurally sensitive place. In order to achieve this, the design takes up the special conditions of the surrounding landscape: the fields and pastures as well as the villages and rural communities. In the minutes of the jury meeting, it is praised that the creator understands how to “transfer the essence of the East Frisian cultural landscape into a differentiated, modestly designed garden ensemble”.

We are happy about the 2nd prize!

The Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Münster (WWU Münster) and the Board of Directors of the University Hospital Münster (UKM) had invited to the laying of the foundation stone of the MedForCe and BBIM research buildings planned by us. The event on Friday, 23 October 2020 was also attended by the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Ms Anja Karliczek, as a guest and speaker.

“With the Medical Research Centre and the Body & Brain Institute, two excellent institutions for top-level research in areas such as infectious medicine and cancer research are being created in Münster. Short distances between the institutes, disciplines and researchers promote interdisciplinarity and the exchange of knowledge. The construction measures and investments strengthen the university medicine in Münster, but also North Rhine-Westphalia as a science and research location,” said Annette Storsberg, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, at the laying of the foundation stone.

More about the project

We are pleased that Nickl & Partner Architekten will help shape an important future location in Berlin’s health care landscape.

The Campus Virchow-Klinikum of the Charité university hospital in the north of Berlin is being fundamentally restructured and expanded under a long-term development plan until 2050 in order to create the structural preconditions for state-of-the-art university medicine today and tomorrow. In a multi-stage selection process, Nickl & Partner Architekten were able to convince the jury with their vision for the campus.
Among other things, the restructuring will result in a new orientation and greater opening to the banks of the River Spree. The historically significant central axis of the campus will be further emphasised and the campus will provide attractive sub-areas for patients, staff and visitors.
Since its construction, the Campus Virchow has gone through a varied history in terms of building typology. In the 1970s, Ludwig Hoffmann’s classic pavilion layout was largely replaced by the large-scale structure of the design by Werz, Ottow, Bachmann and Merz. The current reorientation permits to create a unique symbiosis of historical campus and room modules open to the future.

We are looking forward to tackling this task together with the planners from Machleidt (urban development and planning) and Sinai (landscape architecture)!

For the second time, the Christine and Hans Nickl Foundation is seeking a student award for excellent theses with a focus on “Architecture for Health”.

With the Architecture for Health Students ‘Award, the Christine and Hans Nickl Foundation would like to encourage young architects and planners to grapple with the social and architectural challenges of building in and for the healthcare sector.

Works from the fields of architecture and urban planning can be submitted to the European Network Architecture for Health until October 31, 2020.

You can find more information on the call for applications in the following pdf or on the ENAH website.

You can find more information about the Christine and Hans Nickl Foundation here.

The NAX online seminar “NAX talks about…” takes place from 3:00 to 5:15 p.m. on 23 September and 5 October 2020. Under the title Value in Architecture, this event explores the question of what value and added value is created by architecture.

It uses expert discussions and practical examples to determine how the built environment can be designed beyond its functional purpose socially, economically and ecologically by making the best possible use of resources.

We also participated in this event: an interview with Christine Nickl-Weller on the subject of Healing Architecture was broadcast as part of the NAX online seminar on 23 September 2020. At the end of the webinar, questions were answered live.

If you would like to watch the interview, click here for the film.

The complete programme of the NAX online seminar can be found in the following pdf:

Available soon: Architecture for Health, the first of two new books by Christine Nickl-Weller and Hans Nickl, will be published by Braun Publishing AG before the end of 2020.

The architecture of hospitals reflects a changing society. How do we care for sick people? What kind of working environment do we offer the carers? How are hospitals embedded in the city? When planning a hospital, architects are not only faced with the challenge of combining function and construction in a way that makes sense. They also design rooms that serve patients, employees and relatives as a working and living environment for a short period of time.

Christine Nickl-Weller and Hans Nickl have been dealing with questions of hospital construction for 40 years. With their wealth of experience gained from practical work and academic research, they look at hospitals from various levels. This holistic look at hospital construction is enriched by contributions from renowned authors from different disciplines such as healthcare management, psychology, landscape architecture and art history.

In 2021, Christine Nickl-Weller and Hans Nickl will publish the second volume: Architecture for Science. Stay tuned!

In August 2020, the China Hospital Construction & Development Conference (HCDE) and the China International Medical Architecture, Equipment and Technology Exhibition took place in the Hangzhou International Expo Center.

As part of the academic exchange forum, which was opened on August 30th in the sub-forum “Biosafety Laboratory Planning and Design and Equipment Configuration”, Jian Yang from Nickl & Partner China gave a lecture on “German laboratory planning methodology for biosafety”.

We are very pleased that our Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention project was named China Medical Architectural Design Best Project of the Year during the event. Jian Yang was also named China Medical Architectural Best Designer of the Year by Nickl & Partner China. Congratulations to our team in Beijing!

The conference was organized by the Hospital Management Institute of the National Health Commission, co-organized by the Health Commission of Zhejiang Province and the Health Service Association of Zhejiang Province, and conducted by China Hospital Construction and Equipment Magazine.

Nickl & Partner Architectural Design Consulting (Beijing) Ltd. successfully participated in the No. 3 Childrens Hospital Shenzhen competition and won the first prize.

After our No. 2 Childrens Hospital Shenzhen project, which is already in the construction phase, we are pleased to have been chosen for the follow-up project, too. The site is located in immediate vicinity of a children’s park. Our aim is to create a visual connection between the urban forecourt and the park through a large opening in the tower area.

As part of ‘Heinze ArchitekTOUR virtuell: STADT | LAND | WEB’, about 50 renowned speakers from the architecture scene are presented live from their offices or directly from the construction site. Magnus Nickl also gave a virtual look behind the scenes and talked about new projects, growing challenges and current opportunities:

Triggered by current developments, our hospitals are being tested more than ever – both nationally and internationally. Are they able to meet the challenges of a pandemic like the present one? What structural measures does COVID-19 require in the short and long term? Do additional temporary buildings have to be constructed? Do we have to completely rethink the planning of our hospitals?

You can view the virtual talk again here (in German).

In the Architekturbarometer 30mal10 – GROHE Digital Talks, 30 personalities from the architecture and property sector answer 10 questions each. The interviews focus on their assessment of the effects on our architectural culture, our cities and more specifically on building typologies such as residential and office buildings, hotels, hospitals and nursing homes as well as public and educational buildings.

Nickl & Partner Architekten also participated in the GROHE Digital Talks. You can find the Interview (in German) with Magnus Nickl here:

Architekturbarometer 30mal10 – Magnus Nickl at the GROHE Digital Talks

Underwater research at the harbour’s edge

We are pleased to have won the contract for the new research building of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research in Rostock (IGD-R)!

The new building of the IGD-R at the Old Harbour in Rostock is the first step in the long-term development of the site into an Ocean Technology Campus (OTC) – an innovation campus for underwater research, which is to serve as a platform for academic and application-oriented research and development as well as private enterprises.

Our design creates a prominent high point on the edge of the harbour basin. Its volume reflects the geometry of the harbour and, in combination with the Technikum placed at a right angle to it, it forms a building complex that works just as well as a solitary building as a building block of the OTC that is to surround the central campus square in later development phases.

The façade consisting of vertically arranged aluminium swords symbolises the wave movements and reflections of water and thus establishes a connection to the world of underwater research.

The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Zhejiang Xinhua Hospital) is a Chinese medicine inheritance and innovation base with more than 1500 beds. It is a TCM-based general hospital, equipped with a TCM laboratory center and clinical translation center.

The idea of the design is to understand the “hospital as a city”, here in the city of Hangzhou, which grows around the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The urban space was condensed into the main urban street of the future hospital and newly created as a series of “canals – main streets” and other “tributaries – secondary main streets”.

According to the ancient Chinese medical text “The Classical Drawing Wings”, which says “water is the first of all things, so the number of water is one”, here too water becomes the defining determinant of architecture.

We are happy about winning 1st place in the No. 2 Hospital of Zhejiang University for traditional Chinese Medicine competition, and congratulations to our Chinese team in Beijing!

It’s done! The new HARBOR research building on the university campus in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld has been completed.

Going forward, some 120 scientists of the MIN Faculty (Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences) of the University of Hamburg will conduct research on molecular biological systems at the “Hamburg Advanced Research Centre for Bioorganic Chemistry” (HARBOR). They can now carry out their experiments under high safety standards in the new five-storey building with approx. 7,000 square metres of gross floor area.

Being the second building block of the new research campus, the design of the HARBOR takes its cue from the new CHyN building. It extends the new urban development edges to the north and west while accentuating the entrance to the campus plaza.

More about this project

The winner of MÜNCHENSTIFT’s design competition has been determined: Nickl & Partner Architekten receive the 1st prize in the façade competition.

MÜNCHENSTIFT GmbH is planning to build a new senior citizens’ residence and nursing home on its property on Franz-Nißl-Straße in the Munich district of Allach-Untermenzing. The new nursing home on Franz-Nißl-Straße in the vicinity of the Oertelplatz district centre will replace the aging Hans-Sieber-Haus on Manzostraße. Completion is scheduled for 2023.

In order to integrate the new home into its surroundings as well as possible, the district committee, the planning department of the city of Munich and MÜNCHENSTIFT GmbH agreed to hold a design competition. This design competition was conceived as an anonymous competition.

Five competition entries were submitted. On Friday, 15 May 2020, the jury met under the chair of Prof. Dr. Hild. After intense discussion, the jury unanimously voted for the design of Nickl & Partner Architekten. The design includes a wood façade and a lively structured outer skin.

Nickl & Partner Architectural Design Consulting (Beijing) Ltd. successfully participated in the Taikang Ningbo International Hospital Interior Design competition and won the first prize.

Ningbo is one of the oldest port cities in China, which dominated the Maritime Silk Road already in the Tang Dynasty due to its special location and good connections to the mainland.

The winning interior design reinterprets the theme of the port city of Ningbo. In the three-storey reception hall, the undulating floor pattern and the S-shaped furnishings evoke the movement of water. The installation of a golden metal net that represents the interpretation of a fishing net dominates the space.

Every week, you can listen to new episodes of the JUNG Architecture Talks podcast on the JUNG website. The JUNG Architecture team invites expert, visionary and lateral thinkers of the industry to a dialogue and discusses current issues about architecture, building technology and construction practice in a podcast.

As of today, the podcast with Christine Nickl-Weller on the subject of Healing Architecture will also be presented. We cordially invite you to listen to this German podcast:

Podcast with Christine Nickl-Weller

“During the coronavirus crisis, hospitals around the world are facing immense challenges. There are partly not enough hospitals and those which care for coronavirus patients are overburdened and not well suited for the task.

Wards for the treatment of COVID-19 patients are being set up in hospitals. Containers are being installed, and recently people have started to talk of lazarettos, emergency and temporary hospitals again. And hospitals are being built in fast motion; in Wuhan, a new hospital building was constructed in less than two weeks.

It is obvious: a hospital construction deficit is becoming apparent during the pandemic.”

These were the introductory words of Anneliese Tenisch on SRF radio on April 27.

We cordially invite you to listen to the interview with Christine Nickl-Weller again here!

The COVID-19 crisis shows us what is important in the construction of hospitals in case of an emergency.

• We need fast, mobile solutions.
• We need hospitals whose layout protects against infections.
• We need working environments that support medical staff and spread hope.

These are issues that we have been dealing with for a long time. In the current crisis, we would like to pass on our knowledge to authorities and operators. Talk to us!
#HospitalsforHope

This year was to see the 13th edition of one of the world’s leading real estate events at which the most influential players from all sectors of the international real estate industry present themselves to an expert audience.

The event for 2020 has now been cancelled in response to the fast-spreading coronavirus (COVID-19). The next MIPIM will be held in March 2021 (16–19 March 2021). This year, exhibitors and visitors will therefore have to miss out on the network character of the real estate event and the related knowledge transfer. Next year, the trade fair will again offer a platform for a wide variety of real estate projects as well as a showcase for innovation from Germany for visitors.

Find out more about MIPIM here.

Architects and physicians discussed the future of hospitals on the 8th Health Care of the Future symposium

Interesting lectures, speakers from various countries and disciplines as well as a wide range of perspectives on building in the health care sector were the components that made the 8th Health Care of the Future symposium an inspiring event.

In spite of the Corona virus, planners, decision-makers, operators, researchers and representatives of the healthcare sector met at the Akademie der Künste at the Brandenburg Gate to “rethink” the hospital of the future.

The day full of lectures and discussions was preceded by an evening get-together at Berlin’s new cultural venue “Freiraum-in-der-Box” where Benedetta Tagliabue enthralled the guests with her poetic architecture of a Cancer Caring Centre, while up-and-coming architects received for the first time the Architecture for Health Students’ Award.

More information: Press Release

More information: ENAH

“An ultra-modern temple of cutting-edge research”, “a brilliant new building”, “a building that paves the way for the future” – these are extracts from the speeches given at the laying of the foundation stone for the new high-tech building of the Institute of Geosciences at the Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel (also referred to as Kiel University or CAU) on 2 March 2020. The speakers were unanimous in their praise for the building planned by us: it is currently one of the largest construction projects in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and will enable research at the highest level in future. Professor Frank Kempken, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences: “The new building resembling a cut gemstone will give the geosciences the urgently needed basis for research and teaching in the coming decades.”

On a usable area of more than 7,100 square metres, modern work and laboratory spaces for the scientists, students and technical staff of the interdisciplinary Geosciences Section will be created by spring 2023. The scientists and students who are currently working at several locations spread over the campus will be united under the roof of the new institute building.

More about the building for the Institute of Geosciences at CAU, Kiel

More information can be found at uni-kiel.de and schleswig-holstein.de.

Our subsidiary, N & P Baumanagement GmbH, has been awarded the contract in the negotiation process for construction supervision of the new nuclear medicine and radiochemistry building on the campus of the Essen University Hospital.

The cubature of the design by Heinle, Wischer and Partner, Freie Architekten fits into the environment from both urban design and functional viewpoints. The building site is north of the medical research centre, south of the new multistorey car park and west of the medical centre. The compact structure consists of 2 basement levels, 4 upper floors and a mechanical attic storey. The planned gross floor area amounts to 12, 695 m^2. The gross volume is 62,855 m³.

We are looking forward to the new job in Essen.

Things are moving ahead on the building site of the D-BSSE for the ETH Zurich in Basel. The raw construction of the atrium roof dome is in place. The prototype laboratories are built and the installation of façades is in full swing. The exterior façade has reached the fourth floor. The atrium façade is at the third floor. The project will be completed in 2021.

Nickl & Partner Architekten won first prize in the architecture competition in 2014. The central urban development idea for the new D-BSSE laboratory and research building on the Schällemätteli campus in Basel visualises an identity-creating, unmistakable building. With a conscious decision to design a subtle, sustainable urban development complement rather than a high-rise landmark, the scale of the new building is aligned with the neighbouring UKBB, resulting in a six-storey atrium building in this urbanistically prominent location.

You can find more information about this project here….

The Architecture for Health Students’ Award, offered by the Christine and Hans Nickl Foundation, honours three ground-breaking student works.

With the Architecture for Health Students ’Award, which was presented for the first time in 2019, the Christine and Hans Nickl Foundation would like to encourage young architects and planners to engage in the social and architectural challenges of building in and for the healthcare system.

The competition was organized by the European Network Architecture for Health (ENAH). Eleven papers from seven universities from six different nations were submitted. On January 9, 2020, the jury meeting took place in Berlin to select the award-winning works.

Three works prevailed in the anonymous process, each of which takes up the topic of building for health with very different approaches. They will be awarded equivalent prizes by the Nickl Foundation of 1,500 euros each:

“Detoxity.Sardinia”
Author: Lennart Fischer, Hannover University, Landscape Planning
Supervisor: Prof. Christian Werthmann

„The Jane’s Center”
Author: Sadie Imae, Columbia University, Architecture
Supervisor: Bryony Roberts

“A Birth Center for the new Women’s and Children’s Facility in Grosseto’s Hospital”
Author: Sofia Pistolesi, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Architecture
Supervisor: Nicoletta Setola

More information about the winners projects

The Parent-Child Centre designed by Nickl & Partner Architekten was formally opened on 10 January 2020. The new building accomadates 164 patients and unites all of the paediatric and obstetric disciplines under one roof. The new building replaces the aging Centre for Pediatrics on Adenauerallee.

Five floors were planned with 11,787 square metres of usable floor area for state-of-the-art children’s medicine and outstanding specialists in all disciplines. There are 124 paediatric beds, including 31 intensive-care, 18 intermediate-care and 40 beds for obstetrics. The Parent-Child Centre at the University Hospital on Bonn’s Venusberg Hill is one of the most modern children’s hospitals in Europe.

The University Hospital in Bonn has implemented a unique art concept in the new Parent-Child Centre with the goal of facilitating the recovery process of both younger and older children. Various art concepts and interactive play areas are planned in the building for this purpose. A team led by Bonn gallerist Gisela Clement developed an art programme with the users of the Parent-Child Centre that has furnished high-traffic areas such as outpatient departments, corridors and waiting areas, wards and functional rooms with art works that are both individual and connective.

Learn more about the Parent-Child Centre at the University Hospital, Bonn

We are looking for committed architects for projects like this. Click here for our jobs offers!

What are the possibilities and special features of modular buildings? These and other questions are answered by the book entitled “Modulbau: Ein Handbuch aus der Praxis für die Praxis (DETAIL Special)” recently published by DETAIL.

The handbook presents numerous practical examples – among them the modular building realised by Nickl & Partner Architekten in Augsburg.

Available under ISBN-10: 3955535029

After successful participation in the competition, we have been awarded the contract for the construction of the new biomedical research building of the Medical Faculty of Créteil, Paris.

Translational science is to receive a corresponding research infrastructure on an area of 4,100 m² on the Henri Mondor Campus. The compact structure of our design combines high functionality and dynamics. The generous glazing of the ground floor is to make the researchers’ working methods visible and tangible.

We are happy about this new project in Paris!

The Health Care of the Future symposium will take place for the eighth time at Akademie der Künste in Berlin on 5-6 March 2020. Nickl & Partner will once again take an active part in the event, which

was initiated by Christine Nickl-Weller in 2006 in the context of her professorship at TU Berlin. It has since established itself as a creative platform for exchange between architects and urban planners and all players of the healthcare sector from the fields of medicine, management, economics, politics and business. Every two years, the symposium attracts some 250 participants from Germany and neighbouring countries to Berlin.

In a transdisciplinary approach and based on expert lectures, they discuss current trends in the health care sector and present outstanding projects and innovative concepts. The symposium supports a multi-professional and international exchange and acts as a generator of innovative approaches.

Under the motto RETHINKING HOSPITALS, the following key topics will be discussed in 2020:

/ The death of the general hospital? – Restructuring the European health care landscape
/ Hospital and city – Opportunities for the revitalisation and renewal of municipal clinics
/ Modular, flexible & user-oriented – Patient and staff expectations to be met by the digital hospital of the future
/ Salutogenic environments – Prevention, environment and health buildings

Speakers (among others):

/ Reinhard Busse – Health Care Management, TU Berlin
/ Mette Dan Weibel & Mikael Pontoppidan – LINK architecture, DK
/ Jan Hazelzet – Healthcare Quality & Outcome, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, NL
/ Linus Hofrichter – sander.hofrichter architekten
/ Dominic Hook & Benedict Zucchi – BDP, GB
/ Jette Cathrin Hopp – Snøhetta, NO
/ Nirit Pilosof – Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
/ Lars Steffensen – Henning Larsen / Architecture for Health, TU Berlin
/ Günther Vogt – VOGT Landschaftsarchitekten, CH
/ Cor Wagenaar – Expertise Center Architecture, Urbanism & Health, Groningen University, NL
/ Frederik Wenz – Chief Medical Director & Chairman of the Board, Medical Center – University of Freiburg

All lectures will be simultaneously translated from German into English.
An application has been filed with the Chamber of Architects to recognise the event as an advanced training course.

A get-together on Thursday evening, 5 March, at Berlin’s Freiraum-in-der-Box art centre will provide a creative atmosphere to give the participants the opportunity to get to know each other and to get in the mood for the next day’s talks and discussions. An exhibition of student projects will prepare the ground for the next day’s topics.

Click here for further information and the registration form.

The MODERN ENGINEERING SYSTEMS – HEALTH ARCHITECTURE (MES) 2019 conference took place at the Korston Hotel & Mall in Kazan on 5 December 2019. Hieronimus Nickl gave a lecture on “European Architecture – Between Digital Future and New Consciousness” as part of the Modern Engineering Systems Conference, Unit “I – 1.1 Integration into the urban environment: Designing medical institutions as public spaces”.

MES is the only conference in Russia that deals wth the design and construction of medical facilities. The conference programme covers three main areas: architectural appearance and volumetric composition of medical facilities; design of functional rooms and technological models of medical care; design of technical systems and equipment for healthcare facilities in a complex, principals of coherence and networking.

On 8 December 2019 ARTE’s European cultural magazine Metropolis will report on Nickl & Partner Architekten. The report is entitled “Hospital buildings that heal” and will be available on ARTE media library until 6 March 2020:

Krankenhausbauten, die heilen
Author: Stefan Mischer
Editor: Barbara Brückner, WDR

The report discusses several of our projects, including:

Voiron Hospital
Agatharied District Hospital
Lindbergh Studio, Munich
Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital, Vienna
Interdisciplinary Tumour Center, Freiburg
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Baden Canton Hospital

After successful participation in the public procurement procedure, Nickl & Partner Architekten have been awarded the contract for the construction of the new education and training centre of the Chamber of Crafts in Königs Wusterhausen.

The Chamber of Crafts has set itself the task of educating and training companies about and in new and changed technologies and methods. One of these technology areas is Building Information Modeling (BIM). In this field, the Cottbus Chamber of Crafts does not only want to inform entrepreneurs about the theoretical approaches, but gain own experience in digital construction by implementing a pilot project – namely this new building – and use this experience to illustrate and explain different aspects of the BIM process on the built property.

The models created during the planning phase are to be used both for the qualified implementation of the construction project and as a basis for subsequent further education and training concepts.

We are happy about this exciting new pilot project in Königs Wusterhausen!

The MIPIM (Marché International des Professionnels de l’immobilier) international real estate fair will take place next year in Cannes from 10 to 13 March 2020. The motto is “The Future is Human”. We are looking forward to welcoming you again this year at the German Pavilion!

The fair brings together the most influential players from every international real estate sector – office, residential, retail, healthcare, sport, logistics and industry – and offers unique access to the world’s largest gathering of development projects and sources of capital. 2020 marks the 13th time that German architecture and engineering offices will jointly present their expertise, services and international projects at the GERMAN PAVILION, sponsored by the Federal Economics Ministry.

Find out more about MIPIM 2020 here.

In 2020, two new books by Christine Nickl-Weller and Hans Nickl will be published by Braun Publishing AG:

Architecture for Health

Christine Nickl-Weller and Hans Nickl have been engaged with questions of hospital construction for 40 years. They consider the hospital on different levels, drawing on their comprehensive wealth of experience in both practical work and academic research. From the context of urban structures and social developments, as a highly specialised building type with its own functional requirements, as a place of work and healing with all of its everyday life dimensions to issues of internal and external design.

This holistic look at hospital construction is enriched by contributions from renowned authors from different disciplines such as healthcare management, psychology, landscape architecture and art history.

Architecture for Health thus makes for informative and inspiring reading for architects and specialist planners, decision makers, building owners and investors in the healthcare sector as well as for all those who take a holistic approach to architecture and healthcare.

Architecture for Science

With the book Architecture for Science, Christine Nickl-Weller and Hans Nickl share their 40-year wealth of experience in the planning of research and science buildings and open the discussion about social importance, workplace requirements and future challenges.

In doing so, the interdisciplinary approach is of decisive importance and architects, urban and specialist planners as well as scientists in various areas of research have their say.

Architecture for Science targets architects and specialist planners, decision makers, building owners and investors in the field of science buildings as well as all those who take a holistic approach to architecture and knowledge creation.

Nickl & Partner Architekten are among the founding members of German Architects Declare Climate & Biodiversity Emergency.

As a signatory, we are committed to Architects Declare’s goals of fighting climate change and biodiversity loss. We hope that many German architects will join the initiative!

More information as well as the names of all co-founders can be found at de.architectsdeclare.com

After successful participation in the public procurement procedure, Nickl & Partner Architekten, SÜSS Beratende Ingenieure and HT Hospitaltechnik Planungsgesellschaft have been awarded the contract for the construction of the new heart centre of Heidelberg University Hospital.

A pioneering centre for patients with heart diseases is to be built on the site of the former, no longer used children’s clinic from 2020.

An important aspect of the plans is to create an ambience in which both patients and their relatives as well as the staff feel comfortable. In addition to modern diagnostic and intervention units, the new building will therefore also comprise communication and meeting rooms as well as accommodation for relatives.

The new heart centre moreover has another special feature: it will be designed as a completely digital model hospital and scientifically supported by an adjoining research institute to be built at the same time as the new heart centre.

We are happy about this new project in Heidelberg!

Progress is being made! Last Saturday we visited the construction site of our current hospital project in China, the Shenzhen 2nd Children’s Hospital.

The new children’s hospital has been designed as a regional full-service hospital. In order to meet the special requirements of a children’s hospital, the design focuses on functionality, variability and flexibility and thus reflects the specific needs of children in hospital. It therefore offers a large number of ward types which meet the different requirements of patients of all ages from babies to adolescents.

Interior courtyards in the nursing, diagnosis and treatment units reduce the buildings’ mass. These provide generous daylight, ventilation and landscaping to help the patients recover and create a pleasant work environment for the staff. In addition, the hospital improves the diversity of the neighbourhood through the design of open spaces and the diverse choice of cafés, shops and public facilities.

On 25 October 2019, Nickl & Partner China and Nickl Academy held their second jointly organised annual conference in Shenzhen.

Top-class speakers from politics, healthcare, science and architecture contributed to this year’s German-Chinese forum entitled “Smart Hospital”. They discussed how innovation can improve the quality of healthcare and the design of healthcare facilities from their different perspectives.

Nickl Academy welcomed Prof. Hans Nickl, who gave a lecture on “Smart Hospital”, and his wife, Prof. Christine Nickl-Weller, who talked about the healing process in a lecture on “Architecture, Innovation, Influence”.

In addition to renowned experts and speakers, we were especially honoured to be supported by leading healthcare companies such as SINODEU, the leading innovative manufacturer of intelligent solutions for operating theatres, or ROHDE, highly recognised experts for hygienic coating systems. They presented the latest developments in these fields, which was a clear added value for this year’s conference.

At the end of our series of events on the occasion of Nickl & Partner’s 40th anniversary, we celebrated the grand finale at our main location in Munich on 20 September 2019.
After a lecture by Prof. Dr. Martina Löw entitled “Die räumliche Ordnung des Sozialen” (The spatial order of social life), an interdisciplinary group discussed current and future changes in the health and research landscape and the resulting demands on architecture. Hosted by Sybille Seitz, Magnus Nickl and Prof. Hans Nickl discussed with:

– Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Rainer Noennig, CityScienceLab of HafenCity University Hamburg / Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture Dresden Technical University,
– Prof. Dr. Martina Löw, Berlin Technical University, Institute for Planning and Architectural Sociology,
– Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Jürgen Bernhagen, Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD), Munich, Chair of Vascular Biology,
– Prof. Dr. med. Ralf-Joachim Schulz, Clinic for Geriatric Rehabilitation St. Marien-Hospital Cologne, Head of Geriatrics.

After the discussion, our guests visited two of the buildings realised by Nickl & Partner Architekten in Munich: the GALILEO project in Garching and the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD) in Großhadern. In the evening, we danced and celebrated with more than 400 guests.

All in all a great conclusion to an exciting series of events.

For the first time Christine und Hans Nickl Foundation presents a student award for excellent graduation works with a focus on “Architecture for Health”.

Christine und Hans Nickl Foundation has created the Architecture for Health Students’ Award to encourage young architects and planners to address the social and architectural challenges of building in and for the healthcare sector.

Works from the fields of architecture and urban planning can still be submitted to the European Network Architecture for Health by 30 September 2019.

More information about the award: http://www.enah.eu/students-award

More information about Christine und Hans Nickl Foundation: https://chnickl-foundation.com/

At the penultimate celebration on the occasion of Nickl & Partner’s 40th anniversary, colleagues and guests in the atrium of Zurich’s centre for architecture were greeted with cocktails and culinary delights in the sun.

The location, Zentrum Architektur Zürich (ZAZ), formerly Villa Bellerive, and Pavillon le Corbusier, the last building designed by the architect Le Corbusier, had been chosen in line with the topic and offered our visitors architectural variety as well as the contrast between a Berlin villa and a masterpiece of glass and steel.

The lectures and discussions around the theme of Building Information Modeling (BIM) addressed current and future developments in the construction industry and their effects on the cooperation between architects and planners. In addition, scientific and technical innovations in the health care and architecture sector were presented and scrutinised. The lectures met with great interest among the audience and were much debated afterwards accompanied by music and dance.

Bright sunshine, cool drinks and exciting discussions by a highly qualified panel on current trends in research construction – these were the ingredients that made the 40th anniversary celebration of Nickl & Partner Architekten an unforgettable experience for colleagues and guests.

After opening events in Beijing and Jakarta, the festive afternoon in Berlin was marked by a whole series of events organised by Nickl & Partner Architekten on the occasion of their anniversary, with the grand finale to be staged in Munich on Friday, 20 September.

Benjamin Rämmler, member of the management team and office manager in Berlin, seized the opportunity to look back on 10 years of successful Berlin office history and to review current and completed projects in the field of research and health construction.

A seminar on the subject of telemedicine took place at our office in Jakarta on 26 August.

We were particularly pleased by the great response to our invitation. The guests included representatives of important Indonesian healthcare institutions such as Siloam, Mayapada Group, Ciputra, Eka Hospital Group, Hospital Ichsan Mandiri and Habibie Hospitals as well as distinguished Indonesian doctors and representatives of interested professional journals.

In addition to a talk on the subject of telemedicine by Jian Yang, Vice Director of Nickl & Partner Beijing, and an accompanying seminar, the Nickl & Partner Architekten pocket hospital was presented.

More about the Pocket Hospital Citra Indah City, Indonesia

Four new buildings with a total usable area of 4,500 square metres are currently being built in two construction phases on the Kahlenberg in Mülheim. The topping out ceremony for the second construction phase planned by Nickl & Partner Architekten at MPI CEC took place on 14 August. The constructions shells for the future office and seminar building (building A) and the chemical laboratories (building B) are now completed.

Dr Beate Wieland, head of the research department at the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry for Culture and Science, conveyed the state government’s congratulations on the visible progress of the construction projects. The new laboratories and offices are expected to be put into operation at the end of next year.

“I am delighted that today we are celebrating the result of a development that began almost ten years ago. At that time, the Max Planck Society decided that research on the subject of energy transition was so important that it should have its own institute”, said Prof. Robert Schölgl, founding director of the MPI CEC. “We will soon be able to put four new buildings into operation, which will help us to put energy conversion into practice and understand the underlying processes. We will supply the “tool box”, so to speak, that others – such as industry – can then use to solve the energy problems.”

Find out more about the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim project

Away they go! The first construction machines are on site. Excavations for the new University Heart Center building in Hamburg are under way.

The University Heart Center (UHZ) is a significant building block in the development plan for University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and an innovative building that will do justice to UHZ’s Europe-wide pioneering role in the field of diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Consistent with its outstanding technical importance and space-defining presence on the new, green UKE campus boulevard, the UHZ presents a confident, identity-defining image with its red brick façade and bronze-coloured window elements. The differentiated staggered heights of the new building promote harmonious integration into the surrounding development.

The big series of anniversary events to celebrate forty years since the founding of Nickl & Partner has now entered its second phase. A celebration was held at our Beijing facility on 5 July following a successful kickoff in Jakarta on 2 July.

The theme of the second event was Hospitals and Social Impact. The celebration was opened by Dr Lucie Merkle, State of Bavaria China Office, and Shimin Fan, Beijing Hospital Management Bureau. The following also spoke:

– Prof. Wang Shan, Beijing Technical University
– Hieronimus Nickl, Nickl & Partne Architekten
– Jianjun Wei, Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Center
– Yang Haiyu, China Architecture Design Group-Healthcare Scientific Research Design Institute
– Fengije Liu, Qingdao Huanghai Hospital Investment Co. Ltd.
– Wang Gang, Shandong Provincial Design and Research Institute
The following took part in the subsequent panel discussion:
– Prof. Long Hao, Chongqing University Architecture Urban Planning College
– Yanhong Han, Shenzhen New Hospital Planning Office
– Dr. Liu YuLong, Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tsinghua University
– Magnus Nickl, Nickl & Partner Architekten
– Susanna Koechner, NORA
Special Guest Speech:
– Li Liu, Chinese Architectural Master

We are delighted by the successful start to our event series in Jakarta and Beijing and eagerly await the next three celebrations. Here is an overview of the dates and subjects for our 40 Years of Nickl & Partner Celebrations in 2019:

Jakarta: Global Health: The Pocket Hospital | 2 July
Beijing: Hospitals & Social Impact | 5 July
Berlin: Future of Research Building | 30 August
Zurich: BIM & Technology | 3 September
Munich: Grand Finale with Anniversary Party | 20 September

You can register to participate in individual events at mail@nickl-architekten.de. Space is limited.
We hope to see you there!

2019 is not just any year – 2019 means Nickl & Partner celebrates 40 years!

We wanted to celebrate fittingly and organised one anniversary event with architectural dialog and get together at all 5 locations.

Our studio in Jakarta kicked things off on 2 July 2019. In addition to Christine Nickl-Weller and Magnus Nickl, the Swiss Ambassador Kurt Kunz also spoke on the subject of “Global Health: The Pocket Hospital in Indonesia.” A celebration followed.

We are delighted by the successful beginning in Jakarta and look forward to the next celebration at our Beijing facility on 5 July 2019.

An overview of our anniversary event series in 2019:
Jakarta: Global Health: The Pocket Hospital in Indonesia | 2 July
Beijing: Hospital & Social Impact | 5 July
Berlin: Future of Research Building | 30 August
Zurich: Hospital Design 4.0: From BIM to Facility in Hospital Construction | 3 September
Munich: Grand Finale with Anniversary Party | 20 September

Please register at mail@nickl-architekten.de to participate in individual events. Space is limited.

We hope to see you there!

The Bavarian Chamber of Architects’ Architecture Tours take place on 29th and 30th June 2019. Under the motto “Rooms have a formative character”, the 2019 Architecture Tours are part of national Architecture Day.

Nickl & Partner Architekten will take part again this year with a project, introducing the GALILEO – New Centre of the Campus Garching

Tour:
Saturday, 29 June 2019, 1 – 2 p.m.
Boltzmannstraße 30
85748 Garching bei München

We look forward to your visit!

More about the project

More about the Architecture Tours

The foundation stone of the new laboratory building for the Leibniz Institute for Natural Substance Research and Infection Biology in Jena was laid on 18 June 2019. State-of-the-art workplaces for the scientists and technical staff will be built in 2000 square metres of usable space by the summer of 2021. In future they will be able to dedicate themselves to the investigation of infection processes and the search for new agents to combat infectious diseases under optimal conditions in the building. Installation of the foundation stone took place in the presence of institute director Axel Brakhage, Thomas Nitzsche, lord mayor of Jena, Walter Rosenthal, president of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and Prof. Hans Nickl.

In his presentation of the architectural concept, Prof. Hans Nickl emphasised that the design of the new laboratory building will fit into the physical ensemble of HKI, while its high functional quality will meet the requirements of outstanding biotechnology research.

More about the HKI Biotech Centre research building in Jena
More information is available at https://www.leibniz-hki.de/de/
Press release

Nickl & Partner Architectural Design Consulting (Beijing) Co.,Ltd together with partner China Architecture Design & Research Group has successfully participated in competition of Beijing Center for Disease Control (BCDC) and taken the first place.

The Great Wall is the oldest and greatest fortification in human civilization. The logo of the Beijing Center for Disease Control (BCDC) also uses the image of the Great Wall to highlight the significance of the BCDC as a line of defense. We combine this meaning with the curve of the Great Wall and design the main entrance façade as an irregular curve shape. Through this unique design, we express the defensiveness of the building.

The entire building design adopts a modular design form. Each module is functionally configured according to different usage requirements., and each module is linked with the spindle. In the subsequent design process, the function can be flexibly adjusted.

Through the modular enclosure design, the landscape courtyard is naturally created. They are staggered on both sides of the main shaft with the atrium on the main shaft. Provides an excellent working environment for the interior of the building. The landscaped courtyard on the outside of the building is designed with natural, modern and simple landscapes to provide laboratory staff with a relaxed and refined atmosphere. The atrium of the main axis uses an artistically-designed landscape arrangement to stimulate the spirit of innovation and promote communication between disciplines.

At the invitation of Regula Lüscher, Berlin Senate construction director, and in the presence of both Steffen Krach, State Secretary for Science and Research, and Prof. Dr Günter M. Ziegler, President of the Freie Universität, the topping-out ceremony for the new supramolecular functional architectures at biointerfaces (SupraFAB) research building designed by Nickl and Partner took place at the Freie Universität in Berlin-Dahlem on Thursday, 16 May 2019.

The new research building provides Freie Universität Berlin with outstanding interdisciplinary working opportunities in the fields of cell research, supramolecular chemistry, biophysics and nanophysics. The new building consists of a compact, three-storey slab with a penthouse level for building services. At the same time, the site was modulated to integrate the new building into the surrounding terrain. The upstream seminar rooms, laboratories and offices are accessed through the elevated main entrance on the middle level.

Complete text of the joint press release by the Senate administration for urban development and housing, the Senate Chancellery for science and research and the Freie Universität Berlin (in German)

More about the architectural concept

The Interdisciplinary Tumour Centre that we designed and planned at the University of Freiburg Medical Center was formally opened on 3 May 2019. An open house took place on 4 May. The new building will now be the central Medical Center access point for cancer patients. It consolidates oncology wards that were previously spread across the Medical Center site. Finance minister Edith Sitzmann also attended the opening on Friday.

The interior of the building is bright and spacious. A clear spatial structure around two interior courtyards and a colour concept that gives each floor its own colour scheme make orientation easier. The patient room walls designed by artists are a special feature. A large portion of the building’s art budget was invested here.

Find out more about the Interdisciplinary Tumour Center (ITZ) in Freiburg
More information is available athttp://www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/itz

The 1^st International Summer School “Hospital & the City” takes place from July 28^th  to August 2^nd 2019 at Berlin University of Technology.

Featured by the European Network Architecture for Health (ENAH) the interdisciplinary summer school evolves on central questions of hospital planning in a healthy urban context. The one-week course addresses young professionals and master students who wish to deepen their profile in healthcare architecture & management and healthy urban planning. More Information: www.enah.eu/summer-school

The European Network Architecture for Health is an initiative supported by Nickl Foundation.

The final meeting with the responsible representatives of Ciputra Hospital, Indonesia, took place on 7 March 2019. The negotiations were successful and we are looking forward to the implementation of the new Pocket Hospital Project for Ciputra Hospital in Indonesia.

We have developed the Pocket Hospital concept with the objective to ensure nationwide medical care in the future. It provides for a network of different healthcare facilities: from the University Medical Centres at national level to the General Hospitals as regional centres to the Pocket Hospitals at local level and the Pocket Clinics permitting primary medical care in the remotest corners of the world.

This means that Healing Architecture can be broken down to the Healing Module, with the focus always on the human being and its well-being and the possibility to connect the individual units to form a great whole again.

2019 is not just any year – 2019 means 40 years Nickl & Partner

We would like to take this opportunity to celebrate this properly and are planning an anniversary event that includes an architecture dialogue and get-together at our five locations.

Cordial invitation to the jubilee events in 2019

Jakarta Global Health: The Pocket Hospital in Indonesia | July 02nd
Beijing Hospital &Social Impact | July 05th
Zurich Hospital Design 4.0: BIM to Facility in Planning and Construction of Buildings in the
Health Care Sector | September 03rd
Berlin Hospital & City | August 30th
Munich Jubilee celebration | September 20th

Please register now for participation to the single events mail@nickl-architekten.de The seats are limited.

We are already looking forward to seeing you there!

Hauner’s Children’s Hospital at Großhadern Campus has been awarded a Special Mention in the Conceptional Architecture category of the German Design Award 2019:

Hauner’s Children’s Hospital at Großhadern Campus, Munich

We are pleased to have won another award for this project!

The German Design Award is one of the most renowned design competitions in the world and enjoys an excellent reputation far beyond expert circles. It honours innovative products and projects, manufacturers and designers that are trend-setting in the German and international design landscape. It discovers innovative design trends and promotes the design-oriented economy.

The award ceremony took place at the Forum of Messe Frankfurt on 8 February 2019.

We are pleased about having been awarded the contract for the construction of the new building of Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg – DHBW) on the premises of the former Württembergische Cattun-Manufaktur (WCM) in Heidenheim.

The new building which will house the departments of Economics, Technology and Social Studies as well as the Academy of the Future (Zukunftsakademie) is the first step in the overall development of the area. It consists of two cubic building structures which are arranged offset from each other. A spacious foyer opening to the forecourt creates an active link between the two parts of the building dedicated to research and education as well as the promotion of children and youth.

The new year starts with another exciting project for us!

The Long Night of Architecture will take place for the fifth time in Munich on Friday 18 January 2019 from 7 pm to midnight.

This year, Nickl & Partner will present its GALILEO project on one of the Theme Tours:

Tour 2 – Digital Processes Within Architecture – Innovative Examples at Research Center Garching.

All theme tours start at 7 pm on the exhibition grounds and are available in German and English. Participants need a valid BAU visitor ticket and have to register for their selected tour. More information about the individual tours as well as the registration form can be found here.

As part of the total renewal on the campus of Zurich University Hospital (USZ), a new hospital is to be built that reflects the latest state of research, the hospital’s high level of specialisation and close connection to the patient – an implementation concept that does justice to the important role of USZ as one of the largest hospitals in Switzerland.

In the Nickl & Partner design concept, existing and new construction form a new, unified building: a single form with urban development distinction. As it has historically, the Zurich university and hospital district will contain the major institutions of ETH, university and hospital in the future. As part of the university and hospital district, the new university hospital will also be addressed via the park shell on Rämistrasse – at the point where the main buildings of the university and hospital district already have their primary entrance.
In the hospital, the internal courtyards and roof terraces form a multi-layered open space system. The three and four-lobed wards occupy two floors. In addition to ensuring good orientation, this makes operations more efficient. Access is provided by a central hall with views into all four courtyards.

An exhibition about the future university district will take place at City of Zurich Bureau IV from 8 January to 8 February 2019. (Open from 8 am to 5 pm, closed on Sat. and Sun.).

Nickl & Partner has won the contract for two new buildings on the campus of the University of Konstanz. The auditorium and seminar building as well as the administration building will complement and enrich the overall appearance of the existing university complex. Thanks to the clever positioning of the buildings on the campus, our design concept implements the intention of the master plan to create a “New Centre”.

The six-storey auditorium and seminar building consists of two offset cubes, which are differentiated by further cubes that follow the topography. The entrance of the new auditorium and seminar building is oriented towards the new reference point of the “New Centre”.

The administration building is designed as an addition to and continuation of the existing building block, which is topographically integrated into the meadow landscape of the adjacent Hockgraben in the south. The new building block is slid under the existing building V.

The monolithic appearance of the auditorium and seminar building makes the playful intertwining of the two cubes visible.

We are looking forward to planning and realising a new institute building for the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). The new building in the Augsburg Innovation Park will be used by some 70 DLR employees to test and simulate gas turbines.

The institute specialises in the development of what is referred to as a “virtual engine”. It allows to obtain validated and realistic results, similar to real-life experiments, in a computer model. The adequate provision of laboratories and various test benches is a key element of the project, which will be a DLR pilot project for the application of the BIM planning process and is scheduled for completion by mid-2022.

Following successful participation in the tender process, the contract for the construction of the new CARDDIAB research building of Düsseldorf University Hospital was awarded to Nickl & Partner as the general planner of the bidding consortium with IB Süss, dr. heinekamp, Krebs+Kiefer, Müller BBM, Rainer Schmidt Landschaftsarchitekten as well as N&P Baumanagement. The new building is to provide the research infrastructure required for translational and preclinical science in the fields of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes/metabolic disorders and related environment-associated diseases.

Our concept takes both the integration into the existing campus of the university hospital and future construction plans into account. At the same time, we want to create a separate floor for the participants in clinical trials, which offers them privacy and an outdoor space in the form of a roof terrace. The three-storey building blends in with the surroundings. A fourth floor here and there creates a link to the city.

We are pleased about our new project in Düsseldorf!

We are very pleased that our colleague in Beijing, Jian Yang, has received the “Chinese Healthcare Architect Young Leader” award.

This award honours special achievements in the field of healthcare buildings. The award was organised on the occasion of the Inaugural Chinese Healthcare Architects Annual Congress and presented to 18 young Chinese architects in Shenzhen on 7 December 2018.

Congratulations to Jian!

If you would like to learn more about our work in China, have a look at the publication “Lean Planning – Shenzhen Hospital Construction and Urban Future” (精益规划-深圳医院建设与城市未来).

It contains a report about our Shenzhen No. 2 Children’s Hospital project as well as an interview with Hieronimus Nickl.

Nickl & Partner China and Nickl Academy held their first jointly organised annual conference in Beijing on Friday, 9 November 2018.

Top-class speakers from politics, healthcare, science and architecture contributed to the German-Chinese forum entitled “Innovation in Healthcare Delivery and Facility Design”. They discussed how innovation can improve the quality of healthcare and the design of healthcare facilities from their different perspectives.

Nickl Academy welcomed Prof. Hans Nickl, who gave a talk on “Hospital 4.0”, and Prof. Christine Nickl-Weller, who presented her innovative “Healing Architecture – a cultural challenge” concept.

In addition to renowned experts and professors from Chinese healthcare, we were especially honoured this year to welcome Ortwin Schulte, Director of the Healthcare Policy Division of the Federal Republic of Germany Permanent Representation to the European Union, and Mr. Fan Shimin, Director of the Department for Healthcare Policy Reform and Development at the Beijing Hospital Management Bureau.

On 6 November 2018, the University of Hamburg celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the new Hamburg Advanced Research Centre for Bioorganic Chemistry (HARBOR) on the Bahrenfeld Research Campus. Among the 80 or so guests were Prof. Dr. Jan Louis, Vice President of Hamburg University, Prof. Dr. Arwen Pearson, Scientific Director of HARBOR, and Martin Görge, Managing Director of Sprinkenhof GmbH.

On the Campus, Hamburg University’s MIN (Mathematics, Information Technology and Natural Sciences) Faculty provides the infrastructure for ultrashort time resolution experiments on molecular biological systems. It is designed to help bring together researchers from the fields of physics, physical chemistry and biochemistry to examine the temporal behaviour of molecular biological systems. In her inaugural address, Dr. Eva Gümbel, State Councillor for Science, Research and Equality, said that this makes HARBOR a research centre of national interest.

The topping-out ceremony for the building designed by Nickl & Partner Architects lies within the planned cost and time frame. The ceremonial handover to the University of Hamburg is scheduled for 2020.

More about project HARBOR

At the start of the 2018/2019 winter term, all buildings of the new campus of the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (HSD) are in operation. To mark the occasion, a housewarming party was held last Friday.

During the ceremony at the main lecture hall, Christine Nickl-Weller outlined the fundamental considerations that inspired Nickl & Partner Architects‘ multi-award-winning design of the HSD in 2009.

On the site of a former abattoir in Düsseldorf’s Derendorf district, a forward-looking campus has been created, which combines a characteristic architectural language and state-of-the-art equipment with sensibly restored pre-WWII buildings. At the heart of the campus is a spacious green centre, which leads to a greenway that connects the campus across its borders with the surrounding districts.

More about the Derendorf Campus, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences

The start of construction at the Shenzhen No.2 Children’s Hospital was celebrated on 22 September.

The director of the Children’s Hospital, Zhong Shan, broke ground accompanied by Huang Qi of the Shenzhen Public Works Office, the vice-mayor of Shenzhen, Wu Yi Huan, together with Luo Le Quan and Zhang Ying Ji from the Health and Family Planning Commission.

As a regional full-service paediatric hospital, the Children’s Hospital will have a future capacity of 1,500 beds. The building work is expected to be complete by 2022.

The design is based on a competition that Nickl & Partner Architectural Design Consulting Co. Ltd in Peking won in 2016. It received a “10 Best Hospital Architecture in China 2018” award.

After successful participation in a two-phase tender process, Nickl & Partner was commissioned to convert and modernise the hospital in Herrenberg.

The 170-bed building of Klinikverbund Südwest is to be made fit for the future in the next seven years without interrupting operations.

It is planned to rebuild and/or redesign the operating theatres, the nursing wards, the intensive care unit, the delivery room as well as the medical reception and the physiotherapy and administration rooms on the ground floor.

The new University of Erfurt Communications and Information Center (KIZ) was recognised with an award in the 2018 Thuringian State Prize.

The KIZ sets a bold sign for building culture as the prelude to continued development of the campus on Max-Weber-Allee. With its golden, shimmering, semi-transparent façade and incisive cubature, this building makes a clear commitment to modernity and innovation in the context of a campus partially under historical monument protection.

The selection of high quality materials and precisely executed details in the interior convey respect and identification potential to students and employees.

After already receiving an award in the Thuringia BDA “Eins-zu-Eins” prize, we are delighted by this additional award for the KIZ and congratulate the entire project team!

More about the University of Erfurt Communications and Information Center (KIZ)

The foundation stone for the new ETH Zurich Department for Biosystems (D-BSS) building was laid in a ceremony in Basel on Thursday September 6.

An innovative centre of interdisciplinary cooperation between synthetic biology and personalised, data-based medicine with 18,500 m² of main usable space is being built on the Schällemätteli campus in the immediate vicinity of the Novartis campus and the Basel University hospital.

In 2013, Nickl & Partner Architekten succeeded in winning the competition for the teaching and research building. It will include laboratories, lecture halls, and clean rooms, as well as office and student workplaces. The 200 million Swiss franc project should be completed in 2022.

The foundation stone for the new SupraFAB research building at the Freie Universität Berlin was laid on 5 September 2018 in the presence of Berlin senator for urban development and housing, Katrin Lompscher, state secretary for science and research, Steffen Krach, and Prof. Dr Günter M. Ziegler, president of the Freie Universität Berlin.

The project, which Nickl & Partner Architekten won in an EU-wide competition in 2016, has been under construction since May and should be completed on schedule in 2020.

With the SupraFAB – short for Supramolecular Functional Architectures at Biointerfaces – Freie Universität Berlin positions itself at the cutting edge of research in the fields of cell research and supramolecular chemistry as well as bio and nanophysics.

In his address at the ceremony, Prof. Hans Nickl emphasised the balance between maximum functionality and development of a pleasant, creative work atmosphere that characterises the SupraFAB.

More about new SupraFAB research building, FU Berlin

The first symbolic cut in the ground was made with a giant spade at the Baden Canton Hospital (KSB) on 31 August. The 450 million Swiss franc project now enters the construction phase, which should be complete in 2022.

In her address, Christine Nickl-Weller emphasised the ambitious architectural goals that Nickl & Partner Architekten set themselves in the planning of the 400-bed hospital.

Nickl & Partner won the competition for new construction of the canton hospital in 2016. It replaces a hospital building built in 1978 that no longer met contemporary standards and work processes.

We are delighted that Nickl & Partner achieved the second prize in the competition for the new Hengqin Hospital building.

The 110,000-square-metre project for a general hospital with 500 beds is being built in Zhuhai on China’s south coast.

The design proposes an assemblage of cubic volumes, some extending upwards, that accommodate examination and treatment areas as well as nursing wards and outpatient care. They rise above a curved plinth that houses the publicly accessible functions. It fits harmoniously into the lushly designed landscape of the site, which is divided into two areas by a watercourse.

The façade concept, which anticipates greening up to the highest floors, also represents a reference to the vegetation of the region.

Wir freuen uns, dass die Ostfalia Hochschule, Labor für Fahrzeugtechnik Wolfsburg mit der Auszeichnung »ICONIC AWARDS 2018: Innovative Architecture – Selection« prämiert wurde.

Die Expertenjury hat im Rahmen des Auszeichnungsverfahren international herausragende Architekturprojekte ausgewählt, die durch einen visionären Ansatz, innovative Lösungen sowie nachhaltige Konzepte überzeugen.

Als unabhängiger Architektur- und Designwettbewerb zielen die Iconic Awards des Rat für Formgebung auf das Zusammenspiel aller Disziplinen der Architektur, Bauwirtschafts- und Immobilienbranche sowie der gestaltenden und produzierenden Industrie.

Alle Preisträger aus diesem Jahr finden Sie auf der Website der Iconic Awards.

Die Preisverleihung findet am 8. Oktober 2018 statt.

Mehr Infos zur Ostfalia Hochschule, Labor für Fahrzeugtechnik

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG wins 3rd prize in the competition for the Centre for Philology and Digitality (ZPD) at the University of Würzburg.

The jury particularly emphasised the logical urban development integration within the master plan and praised the open, inviting communication and access zones with their adjacent office landscapes.

The ZPD will be built as the first element of the Humanities Centre cluster as part of the expansion of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität on the Hubland Nord campus east of Würzburg city centre.

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG has won the 2^nd prize in the restricted competition for the realisation of a new rehabilitation centre in Bayreuth.

The organiser of the competition, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Nordbayern, plans to build a new rehabilitation clinic in Bayreuth to offer treatment in a modern environment. The new building is to provide 300 beds for inpatients as well as cater for 60 day-care patients and outpatients. The patients’ needs are to play a decisive role in the design and functionality of the new building.

The design submitted by Nickl & Partner Architekten AG underlines the basic principle of equal treatment of all patients: all rooms are aligned along an elegantly curved, linear building and open to the outside. This ensures that patients cannot look into each other’s room and that all patients are given an open view of the surrounding landscape.

“All in all, a good solution for the task at hand, which is distinguished by the power and simplicity of the architectural means” (excerpt from the jury report).

The winners of the “eins zu eins” (one to one) architecture prize awarded for the third time (after 2011 and 2015) by the Thuringian regional association of the Association of German Architects (Bund Deutscher Architekten – BDA) have been selected. Nickl & Partner Architekten AG received one of the four prizes for its Communication and Information Centre (KIZ) designed for the University of Erfurt.

A total of 28 buildings constructed in Thuringia since 2015 were evaluated. The five jury members were:

– Prof. Claus Anderhalten, architect BDA, Berlin (Prof. of Design for Existing Buildings, University of Kassel),
– Nicolette Baumeister, architect, Munich (Architectural Communication),
– Prof. Olaf Langlotz, architect, Weimar (Head of the Civil Engineering Department of the Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture, Hon. Prof. Bauhaus-Universität Weimar),
– Prof. Annette Menting, architectural historian/critic, Leipzig (Prof. of Building History and Culture, Leipzig University of Applied Sciences),
– Christian Schmitz, BDA architect, Münster (Member of the Executive Committee of the Federal Association of German Architects ‑ BDA-Bund).

The ceremonial presentation of the awards and opening of the exhibition at Erfurt’s Angermuseum on 28 June 2018 was attended by Dr. Klaus Sühl, State Secretary of the Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture.

The topping-out ceremony for the Clinic for Integrative Rehabilitation building was celebrated in Berlin on 13 June in the presence of Governing Mayor Michael Müller.

By the end of 2019, Nickl & Partner Architekten AG will complete approximately 17,000 square metres for the BG trauma hospital in Berlin (ukb), including a weaning station, areas for early neurological rehabilitation and therapy rooms with Kneipp basin and gait training. In his topping-out ceremony speech, attended by ukb Director Prof. Dr med. Axel Ekkernkamp and numerous guests, Prof. Hans Nickl commended the highest standards that ukb had set itself as a goal for the new building.

More about the project: Trauma Hospital Berlin

Each year, the international healthcare design community meets in June at the European Healthcare Design Congress in London. Nickl & Partner Architekten AG was there again this year and presented the Centre for Stroke and Dementia Research (CSD) at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich in the International EHD Award 2018, where it was honoured with Highly Commended in the Health & Life Science design category.

Stefanie Matthys’ lecture entitled “Hybrids” also dealt with the CSD and additional Nickl & Partner Architekten AG research buildings focused on translational research. She represented board member Hieronimus Nickl at the Congress in the venerable Royal College of Physicians.

The lecture addressed the increasingly blurred boundaries between buildings for healthcare and medical research and the resultant hybrid building typologies.

EHD Awards
EHD Congress
Centre for Stroke and Dementia Research CSD

The laboratory and research building HUB de l’énergie (Energy Hub) in Amiens was officially inaugurated on 14 May in the presence of Frédérique Vidal, French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

The institute hub for electrochemical storage of energy of the University of Picardy Jules Verne in Amiens provides an interdisciplinary meeting point for France’s leading scientists and industrial representatives.

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG planned and realised the HUB de l’énergie between June 2013 and December 2016.

Link to the website of the University of Picardy Jules Verne

Link to the project

The special clinic for orthopaedics at the Marienstift Arnstadt was expanded by partial new construction and renovated approximately 13 years ago. However, numerous functional shortcomings have arisen in the building inventory, making additional expansion necessary at this location.

The objectives include significant improvement of operating procedures through restructuring and expansion of existing facilities, easing the burden on the present 3 operating theatres by adding a fourth and increasing patient comfort by the elimination of 4-bed rooms. This requires the following measures, while maintaining clinic operations: new construction/expansion of operating theatre areas, new replacement building for central sterile supply services and expansion of outpatient facilities, expansion of nursing stations and integration of an outpatient rehabilitation facility into the building inventory.

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG was successful in the award procedure and received the contract.

Nickl & Partner Architekten participated successfully in the award procedure for the new Centre for Digitally Networked Production (CdvP) building in Aachen.

The new research building will contribute to advancing the growing demand for inter-disciplinary networking and digitisation of machines and workers and make Germany competitive as a leading provider of production technology.

After an appropriate start-up phase of no more than two years, a total of 70 scientific staff from the mechanical engineering, computer science, materials sciences, electrical engineering and business administration disciplines will work in the Centre.

The design by Nickl & Partner Architekten creates a built environment that offers the inter-disciplinary research activity a flexible, communicative location that meets changing requirements.

A uniform, technically modern façade merges the diverse building functions into a whole. The two-storey atrium interconnects the functions, while also forming the connection to the surrounding campus due to its glazed skin.

We are delighted to have a new, exciting project in Aachen!

We are particularly delighted that the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital in Vienna has been named as the winner in the Healthcare category of the WAN awards.

In this category, the WAN Award presents a prize to healthcare buildings that pay special attention to the specific requirements of this building task, thus contributing to an improvement in the well-being of patients. The Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital impressed the international jury due to the vibrant and positive attitude that is conveyed in this building – a place of encounters and movement.

The official award ceremony took place in London on 28 February.

More about the WAN Awards:
WAN AWARDS

Not one, but two Nickl & Partner Architekten AG projects – the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital in Vienna and the Erfurt University Communication and Information Center – were honoured with the 2018 German Design Award in the Architecture category.

The formal awards ceremony took place in Frankfurt on the 9th of February 2018. The international jury gave special praise to the open, inviting character that finds expression in both buildings.

We are very pleased by these awards!

You can find out more about these projects at:
Kaiser-Franz-Josef Hospital in Vienna
Erfurt University Communication and Information Center

At the end of January, ARTE Journal visited us at the Lindbergh studio and shot a report on the subject of Healing Architecture. It looks at how architecture reduces patient fear of hospitalisation and contributes to faster recovery.

The report was aired on 7 February 2018. You can still see the video at this link:

Healing Architecture | ARTE

We are delighted by the interest in our work and hope you enjoy watching it.

We are delighted that our joint venture with Lindner Entwickler.Planer.Ingenieure GmbH and Süss Beratende Ingenieure GmbH has been awarded the general planning services contract for rehousing the German embassy in Doha, Qatar.

Two contiguous floors in the Tornado Tower high-rise in the redeveloped West Bay district north of the city centre are scheduled to accommodate chancery business and the visa section.

Completion is planned for the end of 2019.

The project by Nickl & Partner Architekten AG and 3:0 Landschaftsarchitekten was awarded 2nd prize in an expert opinion procedure for the “Home for the Blind, Vienna 14” sponsored by Österreichische Blindenwohlfahrt gemeinnützige GmbH (ÖBW).

The goal of the design competition for the new ÖBW building was the design of a contemporary home for individuals impaired by blindness. The guiding principle of our building concept was to design a sustainable, functional building that addresses the special needs of blind persons.

A modular basic structure, which encourages clarity in the distribution of uses, underlies the design of the new building. This clarity is found in both the form of links and the floor plan.

The proposal stipulates exclusive use of ecological, healthy building materials typical of the region in both the structure and interior finishes. This can significantly reduce negative impacts on nature and the environment.

We are delighted to have taken 2nd place!

Since the start of the year, the construction site in Voiron has been buzzing. Following initial preparations in 2017, the construction site was officially inaugurated on 24 January 2018. Since then, construction work has been progressing steadily in spite of the record heat this summer.

The Centre Hospitalier de Voiron et Clinique de Chartreuse will offer a total of 288 beds for the region on 28,000 m². In addition, more than 41,000 outpatient services will be provided.

Find out more about the project

Expansion of the world-class Bahrenfeld research campus in Hamburg continues. The ground-breaking ceremony for the new HARBOR (Hamburg Advanced Research Centre for Bioorganic Chemistry) building designed by Nickl & Partner Architekten took place on 21 December2017.

Katharina Fegebank, deputy mayor of the City of Hamburg and senator for science, research and equality, together with Dr Martin Hecht, chancellor of Universität Hamburg, Prof. Dr Arwen Pearson, scientific director of the HARBOR and Martin Görge, CEO of Sprinkenhof GmbH, ceremoniously broke ground for the new research building.

The new building will provide the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences at Universität Hamburg with the infrastructure for experiments with ultra-short time resolutions on molecular biological systems. The new building will be handed over to the user, Universität Hamburg, in mid-2020.

More about the project

The 10th World Architectural Festival was held in Berlin from 15 – 17 November 2017. The winners of 2017 WAF Awards were announced during the event.

We are delighted that Kaiser Franz-Josef-Spital received special recognition in the Health – Completed Buildings category!

Learn more about the World Architectural Festival Overall Winners 2017

Learn more about the Kaiser Franz-Joseph Spital in Vienna

We are pleased to announce that Nickl & Partner has received a high commendation in the International Design category at the 2017 Building Better Healthcare Awards for the Centre for Stroke and Dementia Research (CSD) in Munich.

In 22 categories, prizes were awarded for innovative buildings, creative products, sustainable processes and the people behind the projects.

The Building Better Healthcare Awards took place on 6 November 2017 in London. This prestigious event is run by Building Better Healthcare (BBH), the publisher of an established information portal. The Awards are run annually and attended by over 500 representatives from the NHS and the healthcare industry.

We are delighted by this award!

More about the
Building Better Healthcare Award

Centrum für Schlaganfall- und Demenzforschung CSD

Ostfalia President Prof. Dr Rosemarie Karger officially opened the new laboratory building at the University of Applied Sciences on Monday, 6 November. The Lower Saxony science minister, Gabriele Heinen-Kljajic, was also among the speakers.
After a construction period of two and a half years, the new building is a milestone for the Wolfsburg-Brunswick region, which occupies a leading national position in vehicle mobility.

“It looks much better today than I could have imagined at that time”, said Prof. Dr Thomas Gänsicke, director of the Institute of Vehicle Construction in Wolfsburg. But the project is more than visually impressive. Because the functionality is also convincing and makes the new building one of the most important national research locations.

More about the project:
Vehicle Technology Laboratory, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Wolfsburg

On 17 October 2017, Prof. Christine Nickl-Weller and Prof. Hans Nickl were invited by the Shanghai Hospital Development Centre to the “European Advanced Hospital Architecture Design and Operation Management” forum.

As part of this event, Prof. Christine Nickl-Weller gave a lecture on the subject of “Healing Architecture” for the hospital directors and the management team of the Hospital Development Centre.

The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Tubingen was selected as part of the Tübingen district administration and Baden-Württemberg chamber of architects’ Exemplary Building in Tubingen District 2011-2017 award programme. A total of 106 projects were submitted and 26 received awards for their exemplary architecture.

The cubic structure, which achieves lightness due to the coloured lamella, was particularly commended. The project was also commended for its internal ambience, which provides a suitable environment for research and experimentation.

We are delighted by this honour!

German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases

The Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects’ Exemplary Building

We are delighted to inform you that we are among the recipients of the 2018 German Design Award.
The 2018 German Design Awards jury of international experts presented the following accolades in the Excellent Communications Design Architecture category:

Kaiser Franz-Josef-Spital, Vienna

Erfurt University Communication and Information Centre

The German Design Award is among the world’s most prestigious design competitions and enjoys enormous respect far beyond professional circles. The German Design Award honours both products and projects that break new ground in the world of German and international design and their manufacturers and designers. As a result, new design trends are identified and the design-oriented economy is promoted.

We are delighted by these awards!

The groundbreaking for the first expansion phase at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) in Mülheim an der Ruhr took place on 5 September 2017 to mark the start of construction. Professor Robert Schlögl, Managing Director of the MPI CEC, took the opportunity to thank the project’s numerous supporters. Speeches by Annette Storsberg, State Secretary in the Ministry for Culture and Science, and Mayor Ulrich Scholten followed.

The buildings will be completed in several phases. The workshop building, which houses the mechanics, offices, workshop areas, test hall, laboratories and the electrical engineering workshop, will be built in the first construction phase. The laboratory building in the second phase provides urban development closure at the ravine to the north, while interacting with the physics building to form a gateway to the site. The focal point of the institute expansion will emerge with completion of the four-storey office building, which will also be built in the second construction phase. This can also be seen in its urban development alignment and character. Centrally placed at the heart of the entire site, it creates the connection between old and new and is the first point of contact.

A complete functional, liveable ensemble with a campus character will be developed with individual, informally arranged extension buildings.

We are delighted that the Association of German Architects (BDA) has awarded the 2017 Hugo Häring Award to the Helmholtz Institute at Ulm University as part of the most important architecture competition in Baden Württemberg.

This recognition honours direct dialogue between client and architect, which constitutes a prerequisite for exemplary projects.

The jury gave particular emphasis to the irregular, heavily perforated metal façade that softens the cubic building volume and creates very varied moods through lighting effects and weather conditions. The expansive, open entrance situation, bright finishes and glazed internal courtyards all arouse curiosity and create an excellent atmosphere for research.

A total of 36 works were submitted. 10 of the projects received awards.

More about

Helmholtz Institute at Ulm University

Hugo Häring State Prize

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG has won the competition for the new Hamburg University Heart Center building.

The University Heart Center is a significant building block in the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) development plan and an innovative building that will do justice to UHZ’s Europe-wide pioneering role in the field of diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

The jury gave special praise to the urban development integration into the existing buildings as well as the relationship to the adjacent a listed buildings to the south and the research campus to the north. Consistent with its outstanding technical importance and space-defining presence on the new, green UKE campus boulevard, the UHZ presents a confident, identity-defining image with its red brick façade.

The heart of the UHZ forms a central plaza that will become the building’s interdisciplinary meeting place and communicative centre. The UHZ’s clinics and nursing stations develop from this social focal point. Four landscaped and individually designed interior courtyards subdivide the building and give its users an opportunity for identification and orientation. As the jury emphasized, placement of the main entrance at the southwest corner and its orientation to the magistrale and open space results in “a generous entrance situation”.

We are delighted by this 1st prize!

We are delighted that the Helmholtz Institute at Ulm University has received the 2017 Iconic Awards – Best of Best award in the architecture category.

In the course of the awards process, the jury of experts selected outstanding international architecture projects that impress with a visionary approach, innovative solutions and sustainable concepts.

As an independent architecture and design competition, the German Design Council’s Iconic Awards focus on the interplay between all of the disciplines in the architecture, building and real estate industry as well as those in the design and manufacturing industry.

You can find all of this year’s prize winners on the Iconic Awards website.

The awards ceremony takes place on 4 October 2017.

Visit Helmholtz-Institute for more information

We are delighted that the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Tübingen was selected as part of the Tubingen district administration and Baden-Württemberg chamber of architects’ Exemplary Building in Tubingen District: 2011-2017 award programme. This makes it one of 26 properties that the jury assessed as exemplary for the architecture and urban design of everyday life.

The jury particularly praised the interaction with the urban development context and the careful selection of materials that achieve a positive atmosphere for research and experiments in the interior. A total of 106 projects were submitted.

The awards ceremony takes place on 24 October 2017.

More about

German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Awards in Tübingen district

We are delighted that the Kaiser-Franz-Josef Hospital is the winner in the International Health Project under 40,000 m² category of the 2017 Design & Health International Academy Awards.

The awards ceremony is part of the 12th Design and Health Congress, which has been dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to the interaction of architecture and health for over 20 years.

The awards ceremony took place in the Vienna Stadthalle on Saturday, 15 July 2017.

More about Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Hospital

2017 Design & Health International Academy Awards

“Get off the office chair, put the running shoes on”. Under this slogan the B2Run corporate challenge took place on 13 July in Munich and on 18 July 2017 in Berlin.

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG was also there with a team from Munich and a team from Berlin which successfully completed the run.

Congratulations to our teams for their outstanding performances!

https://www.b2run.de/muenchen/

https://www.b2run.de/berlin/

A team representing Nickl & Partner Architekten AG also participated in this year’s Coppa Oliva architects football tournament which took place on 15 July in Munich. In the end, we didn’t manage to bring the cup home – but hey, we nearly made it!

http://www.coppa-oliva.de/

At the invitation of Katrin Lompscher, senator for urban development and housing, the topping-out ceremony for the new research building designed by Nickl & Partner Architekten AG at Humboldt University in Berlin-Adlershof was celebrated on 13 July 2017 in the presence of the mayor, Michael Müller, and the university president, Professor Sabine Kunst.

In his welcoming address, mayor Michael Müller emphasised the importance of the research building for Berlin as a centre of science. “With support from state and federal government, a building with an innovative research concept is being erected here for Humboldt University that symbolically represents the dynamic of the Adlershof area and science in Berlin as a whole. By expanding the research infrastructure, we are also investing in the development of our city. Its future will be substantially shaped by science, research and innovation.”

You can find more information about this project here.

This year, the World Architecture Festival Awards received entries from architectural practices in 51 different nations, with projects based in 68 countries. Nickl & Partner Architekten AG has again participated in the awards programme this year.

We are delighted that three of our projects have been selected as finalists in the HEALTH, HIGHER EDUCATION and FUTURE PROJECTS categories:

Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital, Vienna

Derendorf Campus, University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf

Hauner’s Children’s Hospital on the Grosshadern Campus in Munich

The award winners will be announced at the World Architecture Festival, which takes place in Berlin from 15 to 17 November 2017.

The topping-out ceremony for the West Annex, the largest single building project in the general renovation of Augsburg Hospital, was celebrated on 27 June 2017.

During the event, the Bavarian Minister of Health, Melanie Hummel, emphasised the importance of the extension as a significant contribution to the future development of Augsburg Hospital. This will guarantee the highest level of medical care, particularly in the areas of intensive care, laboratory diagnostics and pathology.

The extension is being built on the west side of the hospital. The horizontal connection to the hospital is ensured by the extension of the existing thoroughfare on the sub-basement, basement, ground floor, 1st floor and 3rd floor levels.

At the same time and like the existing building, the individual departments and their central access points will be placed north and south of the thoroughfare. In the expansion area, two light wells are cut in on each side from ground floor to 3rd floor, ensuring illumination of the core zone. Following the general renovation, the structure will be integrated into the hospital’s new look.

You can find more pictures of the topping-out ceremony here

The 2017 European Healthcare Design Congress took place in London between 11 and 14 June 2017.

The selected participants, who were announced in June, had entered a hotly contested competition. Following an intensive assessment process, 10 projects remained in the running. Nickl & Partner Architekten AG received an award in the Design for Conversion or Infill category for the Wolfgang von Goethe University Hospital project in Frankfurt and a commendation in the Future Healthcare Design category for the Hauner’s Children’s Hospital project on the Grosshadern Campus in Munich.

We are delighted by the two awards and view them as both validation of our creative architecture and an exceptional acknowledgement of our high-quality work.

The publication “Healing Architecture 2004-2017” by Prof. Christine Nickl-Weller will be launched during the exhibition opening on 28.06.2017 at the TU Berlin.

What does architecture have to do with health? Can architecture support the healing process? At the Berlin University of Technology, the department “Architecture for Health“ researches and teaches how architecture could influence health. Applying the variable “health“ to all areas of life is the focus of the department’s teaching and research work. The term “Healing Architecture” represents the courage to think outside the box, to explore and to go beyond conventional conceptions of architecture.

Braun Publishing ISBN 978-3-03768-230-2

We are delighted to have been nominated for two of our projects in this year’s German Design Award:

Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital, Vienna

Erfurt University Communications and Information Centre

The German Design Award honours manufacturers and designers of innovative products and projects that break new ground in the world of German and international design. A top-class international jury ensures this. The German Design Award identifies and presents unique design trends. The competition promotes the design-oriented economy.

The jury sessions take place in Frankfurt on 27/28 July 2017.

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG has been commissioned with the new HKI Biotech Centre building in accordance with Award of Public Contract Regulations.

A new three-storey research and laboratory building for the Hans Knöll Institute (HKI) with laboratory spaces for the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology will be built on the Beutenberg Campus in Jena.

HKI was founded in 1991 as the Hans Knöll Institute for Natural Product Research. Today, it is a cutting-edge research institute with a staff of 420. The staff is dedicated to research in the areas of infection biology and new natural products from microorganisms that can be used to combat infections. As a result of HKI’s growing scientific reputation and consequent growth in staff, the existing building facilities are no longer adequate. Furthermore, working conditions in laboratory buildings 1 and 2 depart significantly from currently applicable standards and require urgent improvement.

The Nickl & Partner Architekten structure will integrate into HKI’s building ensemble in terms of architectural quality and also meet the needs of high-tech biotechnology research with its functional qualities.

Delivery of planning services is scheduled to begin in June 2017. We are looking forward to the new project in Jena!

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG in China has successfully participated in the competition for new construction of the vocational school in the Sino-German industrial park in Qingdao, taking second place.

The design envisages a concept on different levels, thereby taking existing elevation differences in the surroundings into consideration. The residential and leisure areas occupy the upper portion of the site, with the sports field and workshops positioned further below. The lecture hall, library and student centre form a communicative core around the centrally placed campus square. Every major building is oriented toward the campus square.

Sun and noise protection are integrated into the double brick façade. The folding aluminium sunshades have different colours, referencing the traditional red roofs in Qingdao. Thus, the peaceful campus is characterised by regional culture and vitality.

In future, 3,000 students will learn, work and live on the 10 ha. campus, with its total built area of 69,977 m², 70 classes and staff of 300.

We are delighted to have taken 2nd place!

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG participated in the realisation competition for the new student centre at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and received a recognition award.

The competition called for the design of a new building that would expand all areas of study at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences with rooms for seminars, self-learning, information acquisition and matching university catering. The competition site is part of the university campus, which is situated west of the city centre.

The goal of the Nickl & Partner Architekten design was to complement the campus ensemble in urban development and creative terms, take the grounds and listed elements, such as the pergola, into account, while also being perceived as a gateway to the campus, thanks to a self-confident architectural language.

In addition, the design is conceived as a clearly structured, compact building volume with five floors and a basement. The floor plan layout was premised upon good orientation, efficient distribution of functions and high quality leisure areas.

We are delighted to be recognised in this competition.

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG participated successfully in the “Höchst Infraserv Study for a Customer Project “ competition and took second place.

A prestigious new company presence had to be planned in the Höchst industrial Park. In addition to contemporary office workplaces for approx. 520 employees, the design should also include excellent laboratory areas.

The central idea of the Nickl & Partner Architekten building concept was the creation of a place that reflected the spirit of the company’s philosophy and a modern work environment. Integration of employee needs in the work environments and friendly, flexible, open-plan rooms form the basis of the design.

The urban development concept for the new building provides for the creation of three building volumes that are connected to each other by a common, three-storey atrium. Another varied working landscape is found there. Footbridges that connect the work areas with each other enable efficient interaction between the buildings. Individual elements, such as planting, footbridges and lounge areas, transform the atrium into an identity-forming centre which forms an attractive working landscape that retains the option of separating individual areas for use by third parties.

Extract from the jury minutes: “The glazed atrium as a ‘space in-between’ was viewed very positively and presents a unique feature. […] Overall, the design was assessed as a very good proposal for an identity-creating and very usable company headquarter.”

We are delighted by this second place!

The moment finally arrived on 20th March! Less than a year after the ground breaking, Bonn University Hospital celebrated the topping out ceremony for the Parent-Child Centre (ELKI).

“It is a wonderful day for Bonn University Hospital. The topping out ceremony marks an important milestone for the ELKI, which we will move into at the end of 2018,” said Medical Director and Chairman Professor Wolfgang Holzgreve, speaking of the new building on the Venusberg campus site. “The construction work is moving along quickly, exactly on schedule and budget.”

The new Parent-Child Centre, designed by Nickl & Partner Architekten AG, unites the disciplines of paediatrics and obstetrics under one roof. The design is distinguished by clear urban development structures that mediate between the natural spatial situation of the Venusberg and the hospital grounds, while also including the necessary amalgamation of functions.

But, it is not simply a matter of functionality. The ELKI is also intended to be an anxiety-free zone. So various art concepts and interactive play areas are planned in the building. Several ideas originated with famous comedian and physician Dr Eckart von Hirschhausen, whose many years of philanthropic activity under the motto “humour helps healing” were incorporated into the overall concept of “culture helps healing” in the ELKI. Other play and art concepts will also encourage the children to explore the building with all of their senses.

The chairman of Bonn University Hospital, Prof. Holzgreve, thanked his building department and the users, ministries, city, architects, planners and building personnel for their careful preparations and timely execution, which meant that, following the topping out ceremony, nothing stood in the way of moving into the ELKI before Christmas 2018.

We are delighted that Nickl & Partner Architekten AG has been nominated for the WAN Future Projects Healthcare Awards shortlist with the GaoXin Rehabilitation Centre design.

The WAN Future Projects Healthcare Award honours innovative design concepts that make a contribution to the further development of specific building typologies. From the numerous submittals in the healthcare buildings category, creative approaches were selected that demonstrate sophisticated handling of the special demands of the medical work environment and enable a high level of comfort for the patients.

The design for the new GaoXin Rehabilitation Centre persuaded this year’s jury due to its symbiosis of functionality and outstanding ambience for patients.

You can find more information at:
https://backstage.worldarchitecturenews.com/wanawards

The topping out ceremony for the extension of St. Mary’s Hospital in Brandenburg on the Havel was celebrated on Friday, 10 March 2017. Father Matthias Patzelt blessed the extension as part of the ceremony. The topping out ceremony was also attended by the Mayor, Dr Dietlind Tiemann, client representatives, hospital staff, participating designers and construction firms and several neighbours. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2017, in order to accept patients in the following year.

The new, freestanding building will expand St Mary’s Hospital, which focuses on geriatrics and internal medicine, by two wards with a total of 48 beds.

The new building complements the existing ensemble with a freestanding, cubic structure that is linked to the existing building by a connecting corridor. It forms the northern border of the central patient garden, which is directly accessible from the new wards via a terrace.

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a prize for its entry in the “best architects 17” competition.

The jury awarded the

“best architects 17” designation to the
Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital project.

83 of the 380 entries were awarded the “best architects 17” designation. 10 projects were honoured with the “best architects 17” gold designation for outstanding quality.

We are delighted by this award!

More about this project

More about the award

Would you like to work with us on exciting projects such as the Mother and Child and Opertion Centre at the Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital in Vienna? Then send us an application. We currently have openings for architects in the design team and for implementation planning.