Kantonsspital Frauenfeld, Schweiz
Credits
Company / Customer
Year
2026
Location
Frauenfeld (CH)
Disciplines
Architecture
Category
Healthcare
Award
Best of Best
Details
The project at Frauenfeld Cantonal Hospital, Switzerland, involved refurbishment, demolition, new construction, and completion. The typical 1970s hospital building, situated on a hill and featuring a plinth and a ward block clad in grey Eternit panels, needed more space and thus required structural expansion. Between 2008 and 2023, the cantonal hospital remained in operation as it underwent several phases of selective demolition and complementary new construction, resulting in a new, distinctive overall form.
The Jury‘s Statement
It goes without saying that larger medical facilities are always open, since care and treatment must be provided at all times. In the case of the Frauenfeld Cantonal Hospital, the need for more space was urgent, which is why the necessary refurbishment work could no longer be post-poned. And so the challenge was to carry out the work while the hospital remained in operation. Although the new building, with its striking, distinctive facade design, differs markedly from the existing structure, it feels as though the complex is now complete for the first time, as if the new building had been the missing piece of the jigsaw. Particularly worthy of mention is the architec-tural quality in the approach to tackling a highly complex construction project within the sensitive existing structure, as well as the precise development of that structure while the hospital re-mained in operation.
