Hospitals are amongst the most complex of building types, their designs being driven by multi-layered briefs, and demanding operational policies, that necessitates a knowledge of present and predicted clinical provision.
It also requires close liaison with both representatives of client bodies and a plethora of users, together with the coordination and direction of other consultants within the design team.
Pragmatic concerns such as these also need to be balanced with a desire to create, environments which inherently make people feel better and it is this principle that guides our practices philosophy in the sector. Each of our solutions endeavours to respond to their particular brief, client aspirations and context, lifting them above much of the mundanity that pervades in the sector.
“In between spaces” – often not specifically identified within accommodation schedules characterise many of our design responses.
For example at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, the clients fundamental requirement to provide a facility which would be non-threatening to children, but reassuring to parents, resulted in the creation of a reception area in the form of a brightly lit atrium street that links the two clinical wings. The incorporation of a major arts programme, the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, further enlivens and animates the space for both children, parents and staff. The hospitals success was reflected in its receipt of the Liam McCormick Prize, Northern Ireland’s major architectural accolade in 2000.
In our redevelopment of the Mater Hospital in Belfast, the new buildings which principally contain wards and a day procedures unit, are located in a position which provides the opportunity to link all of the major facilities, an achievement which is emphasised by the provision of a new grand three story atrium reception, which in turn acts as a major congregation for the entire complex.