AAU gets the keys: Take a look inside the new Faculty of Medicine building

Text: Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Communication, translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication, Photos: Lasse Møller Badstue, AAU Kommunikation

On Friday 28 October, spirits were high and smiles wide when Mogens Juul Møller, Campus Director at Aalborg University (AAU) put his signature on the transfer papers for the new faculty building for the Faculty of Medicine at Aalborg University.

The approximately 22,400 square meter building is located at the end of Alfred Nobels Vej in Aalborg East – right next to the New Aalborg University Hospital (NAU). The close proximity to the university hospital is one of the aspects of the new building that Campus Director Mogens Juul Møller sees great potential in.

- With the new physical framework, we have created optimal opportunities to further develop our excellent academic environments in the health sciences for the good of researchers, students and partners – and not least for the good of our society, says the campus director.

While craftsmen were putting the finishing touches on the final interior details such as railings and floor surfacing, the campus director was shown around the building by Lasse Rud Pedersen, Senior Project Manager at the Danish Road Directorate, the developer for the faculty building. The campus director had a handful of staff members from Campus Service with him who were clearly excited about what they saw.

- It's going to be the kind of building you don't want to go home from, said Alex Røge Hermansen, Head of Construction & Operations at Campus Service.

Move-in just around the corner

Aalborg University and the Faculty of Medicine have had a good and constructive partnership with the Danish Road Directorate and MT Højgaard Denmark, the developer and contractor of the project, respectively.

- It has been an exciting project to bring to fruition. Throughout the process, the cooperation between the developer and Campus Service was driven by mutual trust, which has made for amenable decision making across the organisations – even when the going got tough. And, all parties involved succeeded in retaining their key staff throughout the project, which meant that the project was never affected by knowledge loss. The Danish Road Directorate is proud to be able to hand over the project to the university at on time and within the financially agreed framework, says Senior Project Manager Lasse Rud Pedersen.

On 7 November, the Faculty of Medicine will begin moving into the new building. This is a no small task, and the faculty has prioritised moving the laboratories first so that they can be operational as soon as possible. The next move will take place on 10 January 2023 when more than 300 staff members will move into the new building. As of February, the first Faculty of Medicine students will begin to occupy the building.

However, the medical students in the Master's degree programme and the vast majority of staff at the Department of Clinical Medicine will not move into the new building until 2026, as the construction of the New Aalborg University Hospital, which the department works closely with, has been delayed.