Start of construction for the medical research and training centre in Bern

Start of construction for the medical research and training centre in Bern


The new building brings together five institutes of the University of Bern's Faculty of Medicine.

On 19 September 2024, the five-and-a-half-year construction period for the Medical Research and Training Centre on the Inselareal will begin. The new building will bring together five institutes of the University of Bern's Faculty of Medicine - a milestone for Bern as a medical centre. The costs amount to around CHF 435 million.

Today, most of the institutes of the University of Bern's Faculty of Medicine are located in the Muesmatt neighbourhood and partly on the Inselareal. In order to strengthen Bern as a medical centre, the Faculty of Medicine will be expanded and its institutes concentrated on the Inselareal. The move will create modern research conditions and enable the utilisation of a wide range of synergies. The 13-storey building - base storey with seven upper storeys and five basement storeys - will house research laboratories as well as practical and seminar rooms for the training of around 1,000 employees and students.

The Medical Research and Training Centre is of particular importance to the University Hospital due to its specific location. Coming from the north, this building site is the first address on the Inselareal, which thousands of people see every day on their journey into the city of Bern. This location offers the potential not only to realise a well-functioning laboratory building, but also to significantly shape the university's self-image within the city. Our project design is very aware of this situation in the urban layout and not only shows an inviting and open architecture, but also orients the communicative and public areas in the floor plan layout precisely here. The exchange between people and the research areas takes centre stage here. The university is (self-)consciously demonstrating here that research is a visible and attractive factor in medicine. The layout of the research areas is orientated towards the central area of the island site and makes optimum use of the length and depth of the building plot to create compact and variable laboratory zones.

Client: Canton of Bern, Office for Land and Buildings

Size: 56,500 square metres GFA

Planning and construction period: Competition 2020 1st rank, general planning and project planning since 2021

General planner: ARGE Archipel / ASTOC / GWJ / IAAG