Denmark is investing heavily in hospitals now. Approximately 42 million krones have been allocated to renovate existing hospitals and to build six super-hospitals around the country. One of these is located in ?rhus at Skejby University Hospital. More than 250 000 m2 of floor space is being built. We have been there from the start of an ambitious construction project that will continue for 10 years. Regional Chairperson Bent Hansen broke ground on the project in 2009. The building is scheduled for completion in 2019.

The new DNU University Hospital will be the size of a small Danish suburb with 500 000 m2 of floor space on a plot of 1.25 million m2. The hospital complex will have 100 000 beds and receive 800 000 outpatient patients a year. This will be the biggest employer in ?rhus with approximately 10 000 employees. This is quite an impressive endeavour.

The new hospital required several architectural firms housed in the same offices which include architects from C.F. M?ller A/S and Cubo A/S, and we have been involved since the planning phase. DEKO provided the carpentry work at three different hospital zones: N1, N2 and S2. We were the subcontractor for Jakon A/S , TL Byg A/S and Hust?mrerne A/S.

Our work consisted of delivering and installing the glass walls, doors and movable partition walls. The large glass walls were meant to bring daylight inside for employees and the patients and their family members. The movable partition wall solution allowed for flexibility of room distribution in many personnel areas and for the technical rooms.

This project was both exciting and challenging in many ways. Our teams at Vejle and Pandora helped us out on this mega-building – this was a nonconventional building.

The new university hospital is not our first hospital project. We have worked on about 30 hospital projects in the past, new buildings and renovations at Viborg, Vejle, Kolding, S?nderborg, Randers, Slagelse, Hvidovre and Copenhagen among others.

Hospital contracts are always a challenge where safety and fire/acoustic requirements are concerned. Strict requirements require a high degree of documentation and properly developed product packages. Hygiene is also a key factor for such buildings. The mega-hospital at Skejby required finding a solution to hide the screws in the glass moulding for the doors. We had to solve two problems with one solution: minimise the risk of dirt or grime accumulating in the screws and to make the surfaces easy to clean.

The hospital is not finished yet, but a couple of the buildings are now in operation. We are certainly happy to see DEKO's products make a difference for patients and employees in the building.