Sonnenberg Clinic

Project description

In a joint venture with one of the leading Scandinavian architectural firms, the Swedish White arkitekter AB from Gothenburg, the team of PLAN GmbH was awarded 3rd place in 2013 for its design for the extension of the Sonnenberg Klinik in Stuttgart.

The architects had already successfully taken the first hurdle of the pre-selection for the admission of a maximum of 25 architectural offices to the competition. The German-Swedish team convinced the awarding authority with prior successfully completed competitions and the corresponding know-how.

The Sonnenberg Clinic, where people with psychosomatic illnesses are treated, consists of five buildings dating from 1966 to 1972. A supplementary new development is to be built alongside the main building to be preserved (with central operating technology and the facilities for communal catering), the north building (owner family counseling center) and the west building (42 beds in single and double rooms as well as doctors' and nursing rooms).

Approximately 10,000 square meters of gross floor area are to be accommodated in the buildings to be preserved and the supplementary new development. Also to be designed are new open spaces and approximately 60 parking spaces, some of which will be underground.

Design description

The design by PLAN FORWARD GmbH in collaboration with White arkitekter AB from Gothenburg puts focus on the patients and, with its pleasant, open, bright ambience, promotes the patient's recovery and helps him to "get going” into a fresh start back into a healthy life. The architecture does not appear as a built, alien institution, but harmonizes with the surrounding nature and adapts to the human feel.

The clinic’s history is taken up in the design of the building and landscape. The structures are integrated into the landscape and, like the quarry once was, covered with earth. Through the greening of the roof, nature is extended to the building. The angular form language is the interpretation of the traces of the former rock quarrying. The scale-free facade with vertical wooden slats runs along the hilly landscape like a surgical cut.

The new building and its orientation are adapted to the topography of the surrounding. The façade "hugs" the park, the volume opens up, it "breaks open" and splits into different areas. The different parts of the building offer varied views out into the surrounding area. The central lobby and the main strands "treatment" and "living" are characterized by impressive geometries. Diversity is achieved through the design of inner courtyards of various sizes and their free, individual arrangement. The varying geometry also ensures easy orientation.