UTServicesCFMLTSHNewsThe renovation of the Technohal building and the development of the Technical Medical Centre

The renovation of the Technohal building and the development of the Technical Medical Centre

Preparations have been taking place for the development of the Technohal building since 2015. At the end of June 2016, the University Council and the Supervisory Board gave their approval on the Long-Term Strategic Housing Plan (LTSH) and the development began.

The Technohal building will be the heart of the new Technical Medical Centre. The Technical Medicine, Biomedical Technology and Health Sciences programmes, the Experimental Centre for Technical Medicine (ECTM) facilities, the staff at the MIRA research institute and the Technical Medical Centre, and a number of chairs including Magnetic Detection & Imaging, Clinical Neurophysiology and Health Technology & Services Research will all be moving to the new location.

In recent months, the university has been working vigorously with a number of stakeholders on the design of the building. This newsletter contains information about the construction process of the Technohal, and details of who is involved in the various steps of the process.

The Final Design of the Technohal building has now been approved by the Executive Board. The design meets the wishes of the users of the Health domain and provides enough flexibility for other potential users in the future.

On the Long-Term Strategic Housing Plan website, you can see a 3D animation of the first design of the Technohal building with explanatory notes by the architect.

CENTRAL MEETING PLACE FOR THE HEALTH CLUSTER

The new Technohal building will help to enhance the Health cluster’s image and profile within the University of Twente and beyond. Not only will it serve as a base for students of Technical Medicine, Biomedical Technology and Health Sciences, it will also be a meeting place for everyone involved on the Health subject at the University of Twente. Most health-related lectures will be held in the building, and specific experiments will be carried out in the ECTM labs. The Technohal building will also be a great location for various courses, events and other health-related meetings. The Health and Biomedical Technology (HBT) domain of the Faculty of Science and Technology, MIRA and the Novel-T knowledge centre, are working on a joint calendar for events in the building over the next few years. Additionaly, new partnerships and strategic alliances with hospitals and MedTech companies will be initiated around the new centre.

DESIGN TEAM, USERS’ MEETING AND WORKING GROUPS

Various parties are involved in the Technohal development. All plans have been aligned with stakeholders that will be using the new building via the MIRA research institute and the  Discipline Counsel  Health with specific attention  to the directly involved chairs of  Magnetic Detection & Imaging, Clinical Neurophysiology and Health Technology & Services Research.

The following members of staff are part of the Technohal Design Team, together with the architect and the building consultant: project leader Dorien van der Aa (Facility Service Centre), Ray Klumpert (Maintenance, Facility Service Centre), Remke Burie and Gert Banis (contacts and building supervisors for the Health domain), Ruben Vos (student representative from Sirius-Paradoks), and Marc Hulshof (Central Educational Facilities, Facility Service Centre).

Separate working groups have been established for different aspects of the new building. These groups consist of various members of staff from the Health cluster and other University of Twente departments. The working groups are dealing with the following aspects:

  • Workplaces
  • The use of the building from the students’ perspective; SIPA (Sirius-Paradoks) workgroup
  • Central Educational Facilities
  • Experimental Centre for Technical Medicine (ECTM):
  • Medical Imaging Lab
  • Experimental (hybrid) operating theatres
  • Simulated Intensive Care
  • Wearable Tech Lab
  • Human Physiology Lab
  • Simulation Labs  

FLEXIBILITY AND FACILITY SHARING

Flexibility and facility sharing have been two of the most important principles throughout the design process. These principles are concerned with the daily use of the building, how easy it is to alter this use if the organization expands or contracts in the future, and how adaptable the building is to constant changes in requirements and activities.  

A generic and flexible building

The Technohal has been designed to be generic and flexible. For example, where possible and desirable, the same floor covering is going to be used in the offices and other parts of the building so that walls can be moved without major alteration.  

Workplaces: room for growth

It is important that the workplaces can be adapted if the organization increases or decreases in size. Therefore, only a number of positions will have their own individual office, and the number of shared offices will increase. The Technohal building will accommodate the growth that is expected over the next few years, which will be due partly to the investment in new translational Technical Medicine chairs. The building will also provide enough workplaces for a 10 to 20% increase in staff.  

Experimental Centre for Technical Medicine (ECTM): mobile equipment

A large number of the rooms within the ECTM will have a generic basic layout. As much of the medical equipment as possible has been or is going to be made mobile so that it can be used in more than one room. This means that the rooms will be flexible in use: one day they might be used as a meeting room, and the next day they might be used for practical experiments or for external course participants who need to use simulators.  

The flexibility of classrooms and workstations for independent study

The classrooms are part of the Central Educational Facilities. The majority of the lectures for the Health programmes will be held in the Technohal building, but some will be held elsewhere on campus. Other educational programmes will also use the Central Educational Facilities rooms in the Technohal building. The workstations for independent study and a number of the project rooms for students will be located in the Atrium. These areas will be flexible in use. If the number of students increases more quickly than expected, new workstations can be added in the remaining open part of the Atrium. 

THE NEXT STEPS

  • Specifications: specifications are currently being drawn up based on the approved final design. They will provide precise details of what needs to be built where. The specifications are expected to be completed in April 2017.
  • European tender: In the meantime, the European tender will begin. Five preselected parties will receive the completed specifications, and the most suitable supplier for each lot (based on quality and price) will be asked to carry out the work.
  • Environmental permit: the application for the environmental permit has now been submitted. When the suppliers for the three lots have been chosen, the construction work will begin. The work is expected to commence this June.

For further details, please contact: Bertyl Lankhaar (+31 (0) 53 489 2210 or +31 (0)6 2002 74 35), spokesperson of the Executive Board of the University of Twente.

More information can be found on the Long-term Strategic Housing Plan website: https://www.utwente.nl/nl/ltsh/