Kalmar Onkologi

The number of people living with cancer in Sweden will double by 2030. This places demands on cancer care, which needs to increase its capacity, efficiency and quality. FOJAB has designed the new and rebuilt oncology unit at Kalmar County Hospital, to help Region Kalmar County meet these challenges.

Improving cancer care
The oncology service in Region Kalmar Län consists of three units. Two of them, oncology day care and radiation therapy, are located at the County Hospital in Kalmar. The operations in Kalmar are being expanded with a completely new building and a conversion and extension of an existing building. This means, among other things, that:

• The hospital's two radiotherapy bunkers will be expanded by two more to allow for an increase in the number of treatments, and one of the four bunkers can be taken out of service for longer periods for maintenance work or installation of new equipment.
• A department is being built for a completely new type of examination for Region Kalmar: PET-CT (computed tomography using radioactive isotopes as a contrast medium).
• The oncology outpatient clinic is being expanded with more examination rooms, treatment rooms, dispensaries, etc.
• Patients and visitors will have a new welcoming main entrance, larger waiting rooms, a better care environment and increased accessibility.
• Staff will have better changing rooms, more office workspaces and meeting rooms, more and larger staff rooms, and a bright and spacious environment with better connections within and to other activities.

Green healthcare campus
The region anticipated the future increase in health care needs early on and reserved a large area of land outside the center of Kalmar for the new County Hospital as early as the 1930s. Over time, the area has been developed into a campus, more like a pavilion hospital than a central block.

Through several of the hospital buildings runs a central multi-level communication route, overlooking a series of green spaces between the buildings. The new building connects to this route and we are adding and rebuilding four courtyards. These provide patients, visitors and staff with green views and new outdoor living spaces. The design of two of the courtyards is based on a powerful wizarding forest character with trees, moss, ferns and large boulders.

The new main entrance is a clear target point that makes the business visible to the outside world. Access to the new buildings will also be improved and made safer, especially for vulnerable road users.

The new building is divided into clear volumes that make the different functions visible. The facades use recycled bricks, sourced locally from the hospital area. The new brick facades harmonize with the red bricks of the existing buildings, which dominate the area. One facade is fitted with a large work of art. Inside, there will be a calm environment with limestone floors, soft background walls and accents of ash and oak. There will also be new artwork inside.

Complicated infill project
The location in the middle of the hospital site, on a narrow plot between existing buildings, makes the project extremely complex, with logistically complicated connections for the frame and installations in five surrounding buildings. The technology-intensive activities and in particular the radiation treatment require special solutions. The radiation bunkers have more than 1.5 meter thick walls and roofs made of iron ore concrete and radiation protection doors weighing more than 24 tons each. For PET-CT operations, a completely separate department is created with special logistics and an additional type of radiation protection need.

The buildings are designed to be flexible in terms of structure and installations, so that operations can change or new medical equipment can be used in the future. The new building is planned to be built according to the requirements of Miljöbyggnad Silver.