Meilahti Bridge Hospital in Helsinki

A showcase of hospital architecture and construction, the Meilahti Bridge Hospital replaced the functions of the Töölö Hospital as well as part of the Cancer Clinic and connected the new hospital building to the adjacent buildings, creating a unified functional entity. As a result of the construction project, the bridge hospital houses an emergency department, operating wards, intensive care units, outpatient clinics, a day hospital and inpatient wards, teaching and lecture facilities, as well as a restaurant, café, and commercial spaces.

A large and versatile project

The new energy-efficient Bridge Hospital is an eight-storey building with one basement level, with a total gross floor area of 71,500 square metres. A 40-metre-long bridge connects the new hospital to the adjacent buildings, forming a coherent hospital campus.

Energy efficiency, excellent indoor air quality and the versatile use of natural light were at the heart of the hospital project. The building features extensive glazing, with more than 5,000 windows in total. The double-skin façade is constructed from thermal frame elements, clad with aluminium casings and clear, silk-screen patterned glass.

Successful imlementation

The Bridge Hospital is the largest construction project of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) and one of the most extensive and technically demanding hospital construction projects in Finland. The new hospital includes a large number of technically complex facilities. Some of the operating theatres are entirely unique, enabling versatile treatment and imaging during surgical procedures.

The Bridge Hospital project won the Public Projects category in the international Tekla Global BIM Awards 2020. The competition recognises projects that utilise building information modelling (BIM) in an innovative way.

Construction work began in January 2018, the project was completed in June 2022, and the hospital was commissioned at the beginning of 2023.