NEW DANISH HOSPITALS
be tested for 3-5 months, so that everything can function safely and well when the first patients are received.
Public – Private Partnership Project director for Mary Elizabeth’s Hospital, and deputy director at Rigshospitalet, Jesper Erdal, highlights an important acknowledgement from the partnership, as he points out that the Capital Region of Denmark, Rigshospitalet, and Ole Kirk’s Foundation are all aware of how materiality and sensuality affect people’s perception of quality and competence. But they also know how little this knowledge is used when budgets are tight. “The partnership with Ole Kirk’s Foundation has enabled us to work dedicatedly with and lift the hospital experience to a level that is completely unique to the healthcare system,” he says. “The earmarked donation ensures that we can maintain the high level of ambition for how it should be experienced to be a child, young person, pregnant, next of kin, and employee at Mary Elizabeth’s Hospital. It is a privileged situation, which means that we are very happy to share the knowledge we have, so that we can be of benefit to the rest of the health service.”
Comprehensive care of pregnant women A key point for pregnant women is that the entire process from preparation for childbirth and until you go home – possibly after a caesarean section – takes place at Mary Elizabeth’s Hospital. You are not moved; instead, the staff comes to you. “The vision for a comprehensive and comprehensive care of pregnant women, birthing women, and newborns is great,” says Brit Oline Forberg, former chief midwife and head nurse at Aker Hospital in Norway. Forberg is enthusiastic about the architecture and the
Capital Region of Denmark’s investment. “Here, the Danes are in the lead in a way we have not seen before in the Nordic region,” she points out. “Buildings and staff that give you the experience of continuity and stability through pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity leave are very good for security and control over your own situation. The Danish model of public-private collaboration should also be something we look into.”
Big visions – integration of play and learning As a basis for the architectural competition in 2016, the then project director Bent Ottesen wrote about ‘Vision and principles for the world’s best children’s
Facts about: Mary Elizabeth’s Hospital
n Client: Partnership of the Capital Region of Denmark, Rigshospitalet, and Ole Kirk’s Foundation.
n Architect: 3XN architects, Arkitema, Niras, Rosan Bosch Studio, and Kristine Jensen architects.
n Size: 60,000m²; 176 single rooms, 87 outpatient rooms, 15 operating theatres, 14 delivery rooms.
n The patients come from all over Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.
hospital’: “We have studied the children’s needs, we have vacuumed the international hospital world for knowledge, and we can now build a hospital that integrates play throughout the course of treatment. In play, children find peace and security. Through play and learning, children and young people who are hospitalised for long periods have the opportunity to develop socially and motorically like their healthy friends, so that they are better equipped to return to everyday life after the end of the illness.” The philosophy is that children and young people
have the same basic need for recognition as adults. The feeling of influence on one’s own situation can and should be stimulated in as many areas as possible. It is about strengthening and supporting the patients’ own resources and abilities. The hospital’s ambition is that the world inside and outside will move in step. For example, family rooms make it possible to continue everyday routines and activities. Family and friends can prepare and eat food, go to the movies, play, or just sit on a couch and watch TV together. These are small but important things that stick to everyday life and thus reality. By gathering all activities in a planned course of treatment in one and the same building, traditional and complicated transitions between buildings, treatment centres, and wards are avoided. The goal is for the architecture and the business together to give hope and confidence for the building to manifest care.
Inspiring for Norwegian paediatric clinics Kirsti Agnethe Neset is a senior consultant at the Department of Paediatrics and head of the project A Child-Friendly Hospital in Nordland Hospital, Bodø. For
May 2026 Health Estate Journal 59
Above right: Mary Elizabeth’s Hospital.
Above: Mary Elizabeth’s Hospital gymnasium illustration.
Capitol Region of Denmark
Capitol Region of Denmark
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