Friday, 14 August 2026
PORR is expanding its healthcare construction activities across its European home markets as hospitals become more technologically complex and demographic change increases pressure for new and modernised healthcare infrastructure.
The Austrian construction group has strengthened its position in the sector following its acquisition of VAMED Standortentwicklung und Engineering GmbH at the end of 2025. The transaction added more than 30 healthcare projects, including developments in Austria and Romania, and expanded PORR’s capabilities beyond construction and structural design into areas including hospital operations planning and medical technology.
The enlarged business is now being rolled out under PORR Healthcare across the group’s core markets.
PORR CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss said the broader range of expertise allows the company to handle healthcare projects from initial planning through construction and the integration of specialised medical systems. The group sees this integrated approach as increasingly important as hospitals evolve from conventional buildings into complex operating environments.
Demographic trends provide part of the longer-term demand. PORR points to forecasts showing that people aged over 65 could represent around 26% of Austria’s population by 2040, compared with approximately 20% currently. Across the EU, the proportion is expected to approach 30% by 2050.
At the same time, the technical requirements of healthcare property are changing. Hospitals increasingly need to accommodate digital patient systems, telemedicine, artificial intelligence and interconnected clinical and operational technologies. This is encouraging greater use of Building Information Modeling during design and placing more emphasis on adaptable layouts that can respond to changes in medical equipment and treatment methods.
PORR is also using modular construction concepts to make clinical areas easier to reconfigure over their operating lives. Planning simulations are being applied to the movement of patients, medical personnel and supplies, with the objective of reducing unnecessary travel within hospitals and improving operational efficiency.
Energy and water consumption are another consideration. Hospitals are particularly resource-intensive buildings because of continuous operation and demanding ventilation, heating, cooling and medical requirements. This makes energy performance and resource management increasingly important in both new developments and refurbishment programmes.
In Vienna, PORR is currently delivering the new Pavilion 6 at Hanusch Hospital for the Austrian Health Insurance Fund. The approximately 10,500 sqm facility will contain 66 beds and a new operating theatre area, with the contract also covering the integration of medical technology.
The company is also involved in the multi-stage modernisation of the Reutte district hospital in Tyrol. The existing facility is being refurbished while remaining operational, including upgrades to areas used for orthopaedics, surgery, dialysis, paediatrics and maternity services.
Poland represents another significant healthcare construction market for the group, where PORR is currently involved in five projects.
The largest is a new oncology hospital in Wrocław, representing an investment of almost EUR 250 million. The design-and-build project will provide more than 100,000 sqm of gross floor area and is described as the largest public healthcare infrastructure investment undertaken in the region.
The hospital will comprise four above-ground levels and a basement, with 26 inpatient departments and 30 outpatient treatment units.
In Warsaw, PORR is developing an interdisciplinary treatment and diagnostic centre for the Institute of Mother and Child under another design-and-build contract. Its scope includes the installation of specialised medical equipment. The company is also due to complete a new cardiology department at Warsaw’s Bielański Hospital this quarter, including an angiography system.
Healthcare construction is also part of PORR’s Czech operations. In Prague, the company completed the Intensive Care Simulation Centre for Motol and Homolka University Hospital.
The approximately EUR 20.4 million project provides a multidisciplinary training environment in which medical teams can practise responses to critical situations including cardiac failure, severe bleeding and complications arising during anaesthesia. PORR used BIM and lean construction methods in designing and delivering the technically demanding facility.
The expansion comes as the definition of healthcare construction is broadening. Hospital developers increasingly have to consider the relationship between the physical building, medical technology, digital infrastructure, energy consumption and the operational movement of patients and staff from the beginning of the design process.
For contractors, this creates a market in which specialist planning capabilities can become as important as construction capacity itself. PORR’s expansion into healthcare reflects that change, with the group positioning the business around integrated planning and delivery rather than treating hospitals primarily as conventional construction projects.
