University Hospital Düsseldorf - New medical research centre.

Architects BDA RDS Partner: Leaders in health and science based on 70 years of expertise Founded in 1950 in Hattingen in the German Ruhr region, the RDS Partner architecture firm has grown into a country-wide leading outfit, realising projects in a range of areas with a team of 59 employees under the leadership of the executive shareholder Peter M. H. Damm. These include buildings for the healthcare, research, administrative, industrial, environmental, education and culture, legal, retirement home, residential and preservation sectors, with a special focus on planning and realising buildings for healthcare, research and educational purposes. TEXT: BARBARA GEIER I PHOTOS + VISUALISATIONS: ARCHITEKTEN BDA RDS PARTNER

The architectural practice’s USP is the team’s special know-how in planning and realising buildings in the healthcare sector, including new builds as well as renovations while business continues. This work characterises the company’s quality. The team has comprehensive insights into hospital construction projects in Germany while staying up to date with the domestic and international hospital sector. This combination enables RDS Partner to provide expert solutions for the challenges in this specific field. In particular over the past ten years, the company has developed outstanding expertise in the area of research buildings. In cooperation with a Swiss architecture firm, the team developed and realised the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute for animal health (FLI) as one of the worldwide most cutting-edge medical research institutes for infectious diseases at a construction cost of 320 million euros. The new 92  |  Issue 85  |  April/May 2020

building enables scientific research up until the highest international biosafety level of four. Only another two research institutes can offer the same. RDS Partner received various awards for this project. Focus on people RDS Partner operates with a very experienced and at the same time innovative team which is always fully committed to its work and clients. In this context, the human factor is key. The company’s guiding principles are based on both a personalised, functional and precise architecture and its economic, sustainable and high-quality implementation that is on both schedule and budget. Its business partners also appreciate the guaranteed continuity of this partnership, which now spans three generations: Arne Thorben Damm is not only the youngest appointed member of the Association of German Architects (BDA) as well as of AKG (association of architects

for hospital construction and the healthcare sector), but also a partner in the company. Masters of science For the University Hospital Düsseldorf, RDS Partner is currently realising the new building and medical research centre Medizinisches Forschungszentrum I. Its east-west alignment will be opened by a northern and southern transport link. The northern axis is intended for general staff traffic and can be accessed without controls. The southern axis is exclusively open to lab staff. Both transport links with their adjoining floor space will be connected by three building parts. Every lab hallway and room will be constructed to be compatible with S2 standards. In addition, each of the three building sections will have a central changing room that can serve to form linked S2 areas. Apart from urban development config-

Peter M. H. Damm.