Nationales Centrum für Tumorerkrankungen NCT, Dresden, Germany

With the new NCT building wörner traxler richter have been able to realise a project which is only possible at very few university locations throughout Europe, linking interdisciplinary cancer research and cancer therapy as closely as possible under one roof. In the new building at the Oncology Campus of the University Hospital Dresden top researchers from all over the world will find excellent working conditions and oncology patients can benefit from state-of-the-art scientific knowledge. It has been an exciting task to give the NCT‘s medical significance an unmistakable architectural face - by developing an enduring architectural concept with a clear identity and a positive aura.

The heart of the new building is a unique research platform in the shape of a four-leaf clover. Four high-tech operating theatres and imaging rooms are grouped around a central control room. They include the „operating theatre of the future“ with its digitally networked instruments for computer and robot-assisted cancer surgery - plus state-of-the-art imaging, radiotherapy and laboratory units. In addition to forming the remarkable floor plan of this platform, the four individual leaves of the cloverleaf simulate the elements of NCT‘s research and therapy concept: oncological surgery, radiotherapy, molecular medicine and medical therapy. Patients receive the latter in the interdisciplinary oncology day-clinic on the first floor. Interdisciplinary work plays a decisive role for success in research and therapy - and an essential factor for this is „communication“. With different lounge areas, a spacious roof terrace and the adjoining bistro, the two-storey hall offers space for unconventional exchanges between scientists and medical staff while also providing a relaxed environment for both patients and visitors. The cloverleaf motifs located at these points provide a guidance system through the building in different colours: green dominates in the research cluster, yellow in the day-clinic, petrol colour in the laboratory areas. The motif is also found in the shiny white, futuristic-style metal façade and may of course also be associated with the luck of finding a four-leaf clover.