The new building is planned to house facilities for the internal medicine department, the surgical department, and mental health services — including outpatient, day, and inpatient units.
“This is an extremely large-scale project with many aspects to consider, and thorough preparation is crucial. Great emphasis has been placed on working closely with staff and designers with the aim of making the new building as functional and modern as possible, aligned with current demands in healthcare,” says Gunnar Líndal, project manager in operations and clinical support services at the hospital.

Next steps
Groundwork is expected to begin in the summer of 2026, and it is anticipated that the project will go out to tender this fall or next spring.
“In order to stay on schedule, it's important to relocate parking spaces this summer, as the construction site is currently occupied by around 130 parking spots, which will need to be replaced elsewhere,” Gunnar explains.
There has also been considerable discussion about a helicopter landing site at both SAk and Landspítali.
“It is the view of SAk's executive board that there should be a helicopter landing site on the hospital grounds, and we are working with both the municipality and the ministry to make that vision a reality.”

Looking to examples both domestic and international
Gunnar says that both domestic and international references have been considered during the preparation phase:
“We’ve taken considerable inspiration from the work being done on the construction of the new National University Hospital in Reykjavík, particularly in terms of the internal medicine and surgical departments, as their needs are quite similar to ours. However, we’ve approached the planning of the psychiatric department differently, as it’s been difficult to find a model that truly reflects our vision.
To that end, we’ve brought in Swedish consultants from White Arkitekter, who have extensive experience designing psychiatric facilities in Scandinavia. As part of our preparation, we traveled with the project designers to Denmark, where we visited three psychiatric hospitals and also held a very productive meeting with users of the service.”