Assi is a unique project by Finnish standards – Sweco employees played a broad role in designing the most human hospital in the world

Ahvenisto Hospital, or Assi, was completed in autumn of 2025.

Rescue vehicles and hospital signs guiding people to the top of the hill are a familiar sight next to the nature reserve of Ahvenisto in Hämeenlinna, as the main building of the former Kanta-Häme Central Hospital had been a part of the landscape of the Ahvenisto hill since 1979.

After 40 years, the hospital building required renovation, and advancements in specialised health care had tightened the requirements for hospital buildings and their technology. Instead of repairing the old building, the more appropriate way of meeting the needs of a modern hospital was to build a new central hospital.

In typical hospital projects, parts of the old building are dismantled and replaced, or the old building is extended with an extra wing. In this case, the 74,000-square-metre central hospital has been moved to a new location. Ahvenisto Hospital, also known as Assi, follows the campus model, in which separate buildings are connected to each other in a functional manner. It has become a modern model used in hospital construction around the world. By Finnish standards, Assi is a unique project with an ambitious goal: to become the most human hospital in the world.

“We wanted interaction in the hospital to be as smooth as possible. The facilities are designed to make the hospital feel like a human place to customers. Of course, the hospital also has to function better than the previous one. The principle of construction was to create a functional, safe and healthy building,” said Project Director Petrus Kukkonen from the Kanta-Häme Hospital District.

Users at the centre of wide-scale planning

The Ahvenisto Hospital Alliance comprised the Kanta-Häme Hospital District, Skanska, Sweco and the architect consortium Team Integrated, which includes ONE Architects, Harris-Kjisik and Sweco Architects.

Sweco was in charge of the hospital’s structural and building services engineering, logistics planning and user-oriented design, while Sweco Architects were a part of Team Integrated, which was responsible for architecture and interior design. The project was characterised by a human approach and customer orientation, and users were involved in the planning process.

“We supported the alliance’s project management in the practical implementation. Involving users required a systematic approach, leadership and organisation. We had dozens, if not hundreds, of active users helping with the project,” said Kaisa Narvio from Sweco. In the project, Narvio worked as Sweco’s project manager in logistics planning and user-oriented design and was in charge of user involvement together with the client.

In practice, a hospital function such as cataract surgery was transformed from user experiences into square metres, facility needs and equipment lists. The hospital user was defined broadly: in addition to patients, nurses and doctors, the definition also covered parties such as institutional cleaners, security guards, taxi drivers and transport companies.

“Customers, i.e. patients, were involved in the planning from the start. Every group of users included a customer representative so that we could examine the facilities and operations from their point of view,” Kukkonen added.

The central hospital is ready for future technology

According to Niko Purola, who was in charge of the building services engineering by Sweco, the hospital environment supports the promotion of digitalisation and is based on service platforms and technology of the future. The hospital is equipped with a comprehensive 5G network that can be used to locate patients and equipment in the future.

“The space reservations for building services were greater than in prior comparable projects. None of the completed hospitals yet feature a similar solution,” Purola said.

As part of the logistics planning, the hospital environment was equipped with robotics, conveyors and storage automation solutions typically used in industry. The plans for Assi included one of the tallest automated storage systems in Finland, which saves valuable floor space.

In terms of its complexity, the hospital project was similar to planning a small city. Along the way, this small city lived and there were changes to facilities and their usage. According to Kimmo Fabrin, Sweco’s responsible structural engineer, special attention was paid in the structural engineering to the adaptability of load-bearing structures as well as future operations and equipment acquisitions.

The exceptional circumstances proved the alliance’s agility

In an alliance project, the risks and possibilities are shared between the partners. According to Fabrin, the initial situation alone already made cooperation open. The parties, each with different backgrounds, found shared approaches and a common work pace.

“In the building services engineering, we provided background support for other engineering fields and the architects in particular. With the contractor and cost accounting team, we weighed different implementation options to find the most sensible structural solutions, which was very fruitful,” Fabrin said.

Sweco was involved in Finland’s first hospital alliance in Kainuu. This experience was necessary when the alliance switched from working in the ‘big room’ to remote work. However, the exceptional circumstances did not stop the alliance from working, and the large-scale project was continued remotely.

“The alliance demonstrated its strength through the contribution of the parties to the development work. This brought about a group dynamic in which thoughts and ideas flew. The development phase had its challenges, but we sought innovative solutions for them. Well-planned is half done, but an alliance can get even further,” said Skanska Talonrakennus Oy’s Project Director and the alliance’s Project Manager Kari Sundelin.

“To succeed, we needed to have a shared understanding of the objectives and work together to achieve them. We picked up a good wind in our sails. We now have a functional hospital where space is utilised efficiently. Everyone was waiting for the plans to be ready for implementation and for the new hospital to start taking shape next to the old one,” Kukkonen added.

The alliance’s development phase ended in January 2021, when the parties signed an agreement on the implementation phase. The Ahvenisto Hospital, the most human in the world, was completed in 2025.

Picture: Oma Häme