Nordland Hospital Rønvik is situated east of the centre of Bodø in a park landscape. The hospital was established as a lunatic asylum at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The oldest site is symmetrical and marble-clad. It still stands as a core of the site as a whole and was later supplemented by new buildings, amongst others during the 1950s and the latest during the period 2007-2009.

The old Rønvik asylum is a highly symmetrical site extending over two storeys, with wings added on to an almost closed rectangle. The administrative section and main entrance are centrally situated, facing south-east, and one wing for women and one for men extend back - there was a strict division between the sexes. An economy building containing the kitchen, laundry and heating installation is situated in the courtyard area. The architect's scale drawings also show the development of an enclosed garden site inside the courtyard. Only the administrative section had a central corridor

the accommodation wings had side corridors. By this means the sleeping accommodation also received light through windows facing the corridor - a principle that had been a quality specification in the construction of hospitals in Europe since the mid-nineteenth century.

1895-1902

2009

Architect Lars Solberg (1902)

architect Maurits Sundt-Hansen (1959)

Borealis Arkitekter AS (2009)

Norwegian State

Nordland Hospital

Hospital

Stone

brick

marble

timber

copper

Fygle, Svein: Marmor og menneskeskjebner. Rønvik sykehus i det 20. århundre, Bodø, Nordlandssykehuset Bodø Psykiatri 2002.