The new university hospital in Aalborg is part of a major health care reform in Denmark in which small local hospitals are being merged into super hospitals capable of providing both basic and highly specialized treatment for extensive regions. The new Aalborg University Hospital is one such super hospital and its over 134,500 square metres will accommodate a wide range of health care functions. The project was tendered as a total engineering project, which means that all the buildings design and engineering activities were combined in one delivery package (which was awarded to the Indigo consortium). Part of these activities entailed the elaboration of the original design competition brief into a detailed project brief. Strategic objectives Functional requirements Technical requirementsThe competition brief for theThe formulation of theThe technical requirements project was quite practicalfunctional requirementsfor the project were numerous. and neutral, stating that thestarted with the definition ofMost were formulated in new hospital should be well- around seventy standard roomrelation to the particular medical performing, functional andtypes that would be present inequipment present in the various efficient. The brief describedhigh numbers throughout therooms. For the patient rooms, the estimated spatial needsbuilding, such as patient rooms,for example, the brief stated per department and the mainwaiting areas, staff offices,that there should be electrical activities to be accommodated.laboratories, emergency rooms,and emergency power outlets The competition brief alsooperating theatres, as well asfor haemodialysis units and contained some very specificbasic functions such as toiletsphysiological monitors, low-technical requirements onand linen rooms. These standardvoltage connections for bedside things like rainwater drainagerooms acted as the main carriermonitors and alarm monitoring, and the provision of anof functional requirementsand gas outlets for the provision uninterrupted power supplyand they were used as buildingof medical gases such as to several specific functions. Inblocks for the definition of theoxygen and medical air. The more general terms, the briefspatial needs per department.requirements for surgery rooms stressed the importance ofIn addition to specificationsand intensive care units were flexibility. Knowing that thereregarding size and capacity,even more complex. To be able to would be years between the startthe functional brief providedmanage all these requirements, of the project and its completion,short descriptions of howthe design team set up a database the brief explicitly asked for adepartments worked, illustratedin which they detailed all the robust building that would beby flow diagrams to explainhospitals rooms and their able to accommodate changethe sequence of activities (seetechnical requirements.without disruption to theexample opposite page). hospitals core activities.