German hospital awarded design excellence
Until the UK can prove to itself that there is a definitive, quantifiable clinical link between good quality medical environments and the healing process, it seems we’re mostly destined to languish in second-rate hospitals waiting for either a superbug or the Oscar Wilde wallpaper to get us. Not so in Germany, where the recently opened 70000m2 University Hospital in Ulm, designed by architect KSP Engel and Zimmermann, has been awarded a ‘Design Excellence’ Award from the German Architects’ Association. With its energy-efficient aluminium and glass facade from Wicona, window openings into rooms have multi-coloured glass, so even the sickliest pallor can be rose-tinted.