Artinsite had great success in the BBH Awards last week. Our projects won two important categories for our clients and were Highly Commended in two others.
We are particularly excited that the projects cover such a wide range of building budgets and care needs. From major new build schemes through to small refurbishments; from flexible use of facilities to designing for special needs.
Award for Best Primary Care (New Build)
Winner: Penoyre and Prasad for the Sir Ludwig Guttmann Health & Wellbeing Centre
Penoyre & Prasad’s Olympic Park Polyclinic – the Sir Ludwig Guttmann Centre won its fifth award this year. Artinsite worked closely with Mark Rowe of Penoyre & Prasad to design and produce all the art and wayfinding in the building – aiming for a seamless integration of building identity, art and architecture.
Award for Best Interior Environment
Winner: The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, GBS Health+ and Artinsite, Beaconsfield East Ward
The project also received Highly Commended for its garden.
Using a grant received from the Department of Health Capital Investment Initiative, Hillingdon Hospital has transformed Beaconsfield East Ward into a rehabilitation unit for older adults, many of whom have dementia. The focus for the pilot scheme designed by GBS Architects, Oxford was to create a dementia friendly environment which enhances the patient and carer experience through the provision of both quiet and stimulating spaces, inside and in the garden.
Each four bed bay and single room has its own feature colour – green, purple, magenta and blue – emphasised by coordinated furnishings. Art totems on the corridor and murals on either side of the bays, with a distinct image above each bed, help patients orientate themselves and identify with their space.
Artinsite commissioned Angela A’Court who works in pastels to create images for each individual bed. The artwork features mid-century objects and flowers from the sensory garden, both of which connect with the patients’ life experiences, and which will elicit specific memories from the past: ‘tea with friends’, ‘My mother’s silver cream jug’, ‘flowers from my garden’. Angela’s images celebrate everyday ordinariness.
As part of the design process Artinsite commissioned psychologist Mercedes Freedman to research the recognition of colour and drawings by people with dementia. Her paper ‘Without Words’ is available from Artinsite. Neurological research indicates that, for dementia patients, recognition of strong colour and texture is better retained than other elements. The final work uses strong colours and, through multiple applications of pastel, is heavily textured; completed artworks were printed for infection control purposes and are used throughout the ward.
Angela A’Court won a Pastel Society Award for this work earlier in the year.
Award for Best Acute Hospital Development
Highly Commended: The Manser Practice
Artinsite were commissioned by The Manser Practice and Barnsley Hospital to design a series of images for the Clinical Decision Unit.
Martin Jones’s environmental scale high resolution photos depicted a sheltered spot in a garden, generating a feeling of privacy and refuge. Photographs available at. www.artinsite.co.uk/shop.
Artinsite's projects in the pipeline include the Broadmoor Hospital rebuild, a new £60 million Outpatients Building for Morriston Hospital, ABM Health Board Wales and the £30 million New QEII Hospital for Welwyn Garden City, architects Penoyre and Prasad.
