A great investment to meet the care challenges of the future

Stockholm County is growing rapidly. Between 2010 and 2020, the population is expected to increase by 350,000 people. At the same time, the number of children and older adults is rising faster than other age groups, and our lifespan will continue to grow.

Most of today’s hospitals were planned in the 1960s and 70s. They are not designed for today’s or tomorrow’s rapid developments in, for example, medical technology, pharmaceuticals, new treatment methods, or working practices. Neither do they meet the expectations of the modern patient. As in many other sectors, healthcare increasingly depends on interdisciplinary environments, not least to enable knowledge exchange between medicine, research, and education—so-called Life Science operations.

To meet future healthcare needs, the Stockholm County Council is making one of its largest investments ever. The NKS project is a central component of this initiative. The hospital welcomed its first patients in 2016 and is now fully operational.

Photo: Fredrik Sweger

Collaboration in the White Tengbom Team

With a total area of around 330,000 m², including 630 patient rooms, 35 operating theatres, advanced technology for highly specialised care, and stringent environmental requirements, the NKS project presents immense challenges for all parties involved. It is Sweden’s largest project carried out as a Public–Private Partnership (PPP) and the country’s most advanced BIM project. The hospital is also the first to be environmentally certified according to both Swedish and international standards.

To address the architectural complexity, we formed White Tengbom Team in 2010—a project-specific company through which we collaborated with architecture firm White to jointly design the hospital. Around sixty of our architects, engineers, and project managers have worked on the assignment over the eight years the project has been ongoing. Follow-up work continues until the final phase is handed over in 2018.

Flexible environments for sustainable development

The hospital is designed to function for up to one hundred years—even though we cannot predict what healthcare will look like then. We anticipate rapid medical progress and exciting technological advances. The facility is planned with a high degree of generality and flexibility. The building can be adapted over time as research, treatment methods, working processes, or technology evolve and demand new solutions.

Generous floor-to-floor heights, robust floor structures, and substantial capacity in infrastructure and technical systems are examples of important investments. These enable the hospital operations to develop sustainably over time.

The patient in focus

The guiding principle for the entire NKS project is “the patient always first.” All planning and design have been based on the patient’s safety, privacy, and comfort. Each patient is cared for in a private room with an associated hygiene room. Single rooms provide greater privacy and security and reduce the risk of infection and medication errors. Their design also enables care teams to work together at the patient’s bedside and facilitates close collaboration with researchers and students, who can visit in new ways. In this way, care moves closer to the patient.

A healing atmosphere within Nya Karolinska Solna

We have carefully shaped care environments that have a positive impact on patients. The interior atmosphere is characterised by generous public spaces and numerous meeting places where people can gather. Externally, New Karolinska Solna features a façade of glass, steel, and white tiles. The building follows a rectilinear block structure that continues the pattern of the traditional stone city. Five building volumes are tied together by a glass-clad mantle structure. Entrances and functions maintain the most open relationship possible to surrounding streets and squares.

The care quarters connect to the research buildings to the north and to Karolinska Institutet’s new laboratory to the west. Between the care and research functions runs the Academic Promenade, which links the hospital with Karolinska Institutet and bridges Solnavägen via a new pedestrian and cycle bridge.

World leading Life Science cluster in Hagastaden

Stockholm aims to be a Scandinavian centre and catalyst within Life Science—a place where industry, academia, and clinical care and research meet and collaborate. This is the vision expressed by Karolinska Institutet, KTH, Stockholm University, the City of Stockholm, the City of Solna, and the Stockholm County Council in the joint “Vision 2025 – Science City.” Consequently, collaboration between healthcare, research, and education has been a fundamental architectural premise in the NKS project.

The New Karolinska Solna project will ultimately be a key driver in the development of Hagastaden, where the cities of Solna and Stockholm meet. Once fully developed, the area will offer around 6,000 new homes and 50,000 workplaces. A science district for world-leading education and research is being created here under the collective name Stockholm Life. The hospital’s main building will form the backdrop at Hagaplan, the district’s new urban square.

Nya Karolinska Solna will also be the single most important motor behind the development of Hagastaden – the new district where Solna and Stockholm meet, and which when completed will offer approximately 5,000 new homes and 50,000 jobs of which just over 6 000 at NKS. We are creating a science city for cutting edge education and research under the common name Stockholm Life. The main building of the hospital will form the focal point of Hagaplan, the new town square.

Awards and Recognitions

The World Architecture Festival nominated NKS in 2019 in the Completed Buildings: Health category. In 2025, Newsweek ranked it fifth globally.