UHLENHORST nursing care facility, Hamburg

As general contractor, the Hochbau Region Nord was responsible for the conversion of the UHLENHORST care facility and met deadlines for the implementation planning and the start of the shell construction work in record time. Construction began in March 2022.

Campaign of investment in modern care provision

The care facility UHLENHORST with its three houses Schwanenwik, Alster and Bellevue is located near the Außenalster. It was built a good 20 years ago and is therefore not really in need of renovation. The operator ‘PFLEGEN & WOHNEN HAMBURG GmbH’ has launched an investment offensive for its ‘Future Care Initiative’ to adapt the services offered in five care facilities in Hamburg to the changing needs of the elderly. As a result, the UHLENHORST site has also been expanded and modernised. The ‘Service Living’ concept takes into account the desire to live independently in one's own barrier-free apartment for as long as possible. As general contractor, PORR was also responsible for the construction of a second ‘Future Care Initiative’ project: the new construction of the Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg care centre.

Extension with roof garden for people with dementia

The first step was to convert the inpatient care area in House 1, ‘Schwanenwik’, at UHLENHORST.

Apart from a few rooms with two beds, only single rooms are offered. The north and east facades were removed, the building was enlarged to the north and, with the exception of the administrative wing, a fifth floor was added. Three annexes on the north side increased the floor space by 170 m², while an annex on the south side created an additional 146 m² of space. Both the four-storey main wing and the three-storey south-eastern side wing were extended upwards. The new fourth staggered floor of the side wing has a dementia garden/roof garden.

For reasons of weight and approval, it was not possible to add storeys using conventional construction methods. PORR offered the client an innovative solution: the extension was built in solid timber construction and then faced. ‘There is currently no standardisation for adding storeys in solid timber construction to a building of this type (building class 5 and special construction). Therefore, it basically requires approvals in individual cases, which have to be coordinated with the building inspection office of the city of Hamburg,’ explains site manager Markus Rasche.

Since the basement houses the connections for electricity, water, district heating, IT and telephone for all buildings, continued operation had to be ensured during the conversion. After the residents have moved in, the Alster and Bellevue buildings will be converted and offered as Service living/living plus.