Vaasa Central Hospital’s H building is energy-efficient and smart

The construction phase of the H building of Vaasa (Finland) Central Hospital implemented by the BothniaHigh5 alliance has now been completed. The parties to the alliance handed over the hospital building to the representatives of the Ostrobothnia wellbeing services county on Monday, 22 August 2022.

“I would say this is one of the most energy-efficient hospitals in our country. The telecommunications connections were designed with future requirements in mind. All of the design solutions were evaluated from the lifecycle point of view,” says Kari Rintamäki, Development Manager, Granlund.

All of the design solutions were evaluated from the lifecycle point of view.

Kari Rintamäki, Senior Advisor, Granlund

Heating is largely implemented by recycling waste heat from other buildings in the hospital area with heat pumps. Solar panels are installed on the ventilation equipment room roof as well as the south wall. The premises are heated and cooled with ceiling radiators, which maintain the optimum temperature without draught.

Automation monitors temperature and air quality in almost every room and controls the technology to maintain hygiene and comfort at the target level.

Revit software in the test

Taking centre stage in the project design was BIM, which was extensively used to integrate the new hospital complex into the existing building environment. Granlund Pohjanmaa was responsible for MEP and energy solution design in the project.

“BIM was employed with unprecedented precision, and the entire BIM installation operations were based on an information model. The information model will also be utilised more than usual at the maintenance stage,” says Rintamäki.

BIM was employed with unprecedented precision, and the entire BIM installation operations were based on an information model.

In the end, MEP was designed using Revit software, which was largely still at the development stage at the start of the project. The H building is the first building of this scale in Finland designed with Revit.

“In the middle of a hectic design stage, we were surprised by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced teamwork to take a new form,” says Rintamäki.

First alliance project in Ostrobothnia

The Vaasa Central Hospital H building project was implemented as an alliance, with the alliance agreement signed by the different parties on 22 December 2017.

The H building combines special health care, primary health care and social services under one roof. The design of the hospital wanted to listen to and engage with its future users.

“The alliance model made it possible to make user changes still at a rather late stage. It may have resulted in an unusual amount of design work but the end result is facilities that meet user needs better than the conventional implementation model,” says Rintamäki.

Once the building is complete, the Ostrobothnia wellbeing services county will start to plan for opening the premises to staff and patients. There will be hundreds of wellbeing services county employees working in the H building. The premises involve a lot of new technology for which the staff will receive training.

Want to know more?

Kari Rintamäki

Senior Advisor

Granlund Oy

+358 50 526 2280

firstname.lastname@granlund.fi