After ten years of planning and five years of construction, the new building of the Cantonal Hospital Winterthur (KSW) has been officially opened. According to a press release from the engineering and consulting company HKG , operations should definitely start in the coming week after the moving day on Thursday.
According to the KSW, the new bed and operation wing will replace the existing high-rise building. After 55 years of operation it will be demolished. According to the KSW , the new building has 61,000 square meters of floor space, 13 floors, 213 rooms, seven operating theaters, 95 treatment rooms and 240 parking spaces. The RA-B architects working group (Rapp Architekten AG and Butscher Architekten AG) created the new KSW building under the direction of the cantonal building authority.
The new building has a simple design with a lightweight travertine facade. Fully automatic building shading enables a pleasant climate in the rooms despite the large window areas. Like the facade, the KSW also designed the public park in front of the new building together with the Winterthur urban design specialist group.
According to the announcement, the cantonal hospital invested CHF 350 million in the approximately ten years of planning and construction. CFO Hansjörg Lehmann, who will replace the current CEO Rolf Zehnder as Chairman of the Management Board in May, refers to the special features of the financing. “The KSW was the first hospital in Switzerland to place a green bond on the capital market and at the lowest conditions ever seen,” he is quoted as saying. The successful realization of the new building is “a milestone in the history of KSW”.
Because a public celebration of the commissioning was not possible due to the pandemic, the KSW has provided videos with a virtual insight into the new building on a special website .
