CONSTRUCTION PLANS. The institutes’ needs determine what facilities and buildings are needed at Medicinareberget. That is the message from the University’s new Strategic Planner, Mårten Tiselius.
“GU’s Project Manager, Anna Skoog and I can serve as a support for the process before us, but it is up to the institutions to tell us how they want to proceed,” he says.
The University is a tenant on the premises, as the Akademiska Hus real estate company, among others, builds and owns the buildings the University uses. Besides the University, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, the City of Gothenburg as well as the property developers Akademiska Hus and Vitartes (formerly SveaNor) are important actors in the development of Medicinareberget.
“Officials and politicians in the City of Gothenburg are responsive to the University’s needs in regard to development of Medicinareberget. I feel that our collaboration is functioning excellently,” says Mårten Tiselius.
Greater opportunities to influence
At this time, the University of Gothenburg has not signed any commitments, nor has the project to develop the activities at Medicinareberget cost the University anything – except the internal work effort that has been done within the different project groups.
The Vice-Chancellor has given the go ahead for the operations development project’s continuation until Summer 2017. Within a few months, the University will need to sign the first contract, which means that we will commit to subsidize the initial designing of a new building that more closely connects GU to SU, which can involve several million SEK. This contract is an important condition in enabling the property owner to continue to explore the possibilities of building the first phase of the envisaged development of Medicinareberget.
“Right now, we are at a point where we have enormous opportunities to bring our ideas to fruition without it costing us very much. The farther you come with such major projects, the more expensive changes become and the opportunity to influence the project lessens,” says Mårten Tiselius.
He notes that there are important questions that cannot be answered until much later on in the project. Not until the fall, will the projected cost of the construction become clear.
“Then, we can probably develop a program speadsheet, usually with a plus-minus 25% error margin. But of course, developing infrastructures, facilities and building new laboratories costs money. The current laboratory environment is technically complex and very installation dense, which drives the costs up. At the same time, a good infrastructure is necessary for us to be unique and attractive to researchers and students. By utilizing facilities more effectively and having several share the expensive equipment, we can keep the costs down.
Clear business concept
Last fall, discussions on Medicinareberget’s future intensified at Sahlgrenska Academy, at both the faculty and institutional levels. A number of work groups with different areas of responsibility have been formed within the project. The subject is also a recurring point at the Head of the Departments Council meetings.
Within the project several new buildings in and around Medicinareberget have been suggested, including what is known as Hus 123, which according to the volume drawings can be a tall building near Pehr Dubbsgatan, a large building on Sahlgrenska University Hospital’s side and a several story building with bridgework that extends over the street to the hospital. From SU’s side, planning is moving forward as there is an acute need for the building that is planned on the hospital’s land If Sahlgrenska Academy’s institutions want to take advantage of the opportunity to build jointly with SU, then the Heads of the Departments must agree that research and teaching need the new facilities,” explains Mårten Tiselius.
“For the University’s part, the project completely concerns the operation’s current and future needs. If Sahlgrenska Academy and the University of Gothenburg want to continue to develop the operation and create the conditions for a more effective and innovative research environment, then they should articulate this in the form of a letter of intent. This is necessary if the project is to be able to continue along this path.
Experiences from Karolinska Institutet in Solna
Soon an architectural contest will be concluded that will decide which architectural firm or firms will be given the assignment to design the drawings for the suggested buildings. Contest entries will be publically displayed during the period of February – March, and Mårten Tiselius represents the University on the jury that selects the winner. The architectural contest is a kind of negotiation, that is a way to decide who is most suited to the assignment. The proposed construction that wins will be worked with and the illustrations should not be considered to be any sort of a final drawing.
Mårten Tiselius took over last summer and is now Director and responsible for the architecture and strategic planning at University of Gothenburg. He has his office in the BASF building at the foot of Medicinareberget in the direction of Linnéplatsen.
He is an architect, educated at Chalmers and most recently came from Akademiska Hus in Stockholm. There he was responsible for such things as campus development of Karolinska Institutet (KI). KI is now in the final phase of a major infrastructure investment, and in 2018 will move into the Biomedicum, a laboratory that gathers all of KI’s experimental research into one building. Even if the institutions at KI were not in total agreement, the Heads of the Departments gave the go ahead for the project in 2008. Currently, KI has an ever more thematic campus where researchers gather by research focus instead of by institutional affiliation.
“KI has made major investments and will have a negative result for many years to come, to bear the cost. But as they saw it, it was the only way if they wanted to keep pace with developments. They made the decision that their old environment was no longer good enough if they were to be more successful,” says Mårten Tiselius.
FACTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEDICINAREBERGET
- The City of Gothenburg is currently working on detailed planning of the area in and around Medicinareberget. Consultations on the detailed drawings are planned for fall 2016.
- The University’s development project, Vision 2020 – Medicinareberget, recently entered its third phase. When the project’s second phase ended, the previous Project Director, Margareta Wallin Peterson decided to return to her role of professor at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. A new project owner has been appointed by the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Staffan Edén
- For information on the project go to medicinareberget.gu.se
