The importance of the external environment to patient, staff and visitor wellbeing will be highlighted at this year’s Building Better Healthcare Awards with a special award under the Patient Environment category.
The Award for Best External Environment will be presented for an outstanding external space that enhances the overall experience of patients, staff and visitors through gardens, landscape, urbanscape or streetscape.
Entries must involve projects that were completed or fully operational between 1 January 2012 and 1 June 2013. They can include external building works, landscaping, artwork, and the improvement and creation of external areas such as carparks and public access points.
Each entry must include a 500-word overview of the scheme, explaining how it meets the criteria set out by our esteemed judging panel. They will be looking for:
- A scheme that provides clearly-identifiable spaces that enhance the patient, visitor and staff experience through specific design intervention
- Demonstrates how the design supports therapeutic interventions
- Demonstrates the innovative use of materials and/or processes
- Involves patients, staff or other key stakeholders within the design process
- Puts sustainability at the forefront of the design process
- Demonstrates innovation within the field and sets a precedent for the design of future outdoor spaces
- Is mindful and considerate of the local community and the surroundings in which it is located
- Generates logical and sympathetic movement in and around the building
Click here for the full criteria.
This overview of your entry is your only chance to grab the attention of our judges. Therefore, failure to cover all of the points laid out in the criteria could result in your entry not making the shortlist. The judges can only make their decision based on the information you put in front of them.
This should be an inspiration and challenge to others to better utilise even the most uninspiring areas on hospital sites
Accompanying images should illustrate the issues outlined in your written submission, with actual pictures of the completed schemes. Our judges are some of the most widely respected in the field of building design and the patient experience, so they will be looking closely at the overall impact the intervention has on staff, patients and visitors.
Previous winners of the award have included the chemotherapy garden at St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight, which picked up last year’s prize.
The garden, built on a derelict parking area, was designed with the purpose of providing patients receiving treatment at the clinic, their friends and relatives and the healthcare staff, somewhere where they can destress, reflect and relax.
The project was funded by public donations and was inspired by the wishes of a St Mary’s ward sister who died from cancer and the experiences and wishes of current patients and the senior chemotherapy nurse.
The facility is now maintained by volunteers from the local community.
The judges said of the entry: “We were impressed at how a derelict parking lot was transformed into a tranquil space for patients receiving care in the chemotherapy unit and that is was funded by public donations.
”Patients and staff drove the design, which involved local artists and gardeners. The resulting garden provides a secluded and secure outside space with pathways for wheelchairs and a choice of semi-private seating spaces.
"It should be an inspiration and challenge to others to better utilise even the most uninspiring areas on hospital sites.”
In 2011 the prize went to The Time Garden at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.
This is a special space amid the hectic activity of an acute hospital that is already much appreciated by patients, relatives and staff
Described by the judges at the time as a 'beautifully-designed' project that 'shows real thought and care for the patient pathway', The Time Garden is for the exclusive use of terminally-ill patients and their families.
Developed by TV gardener Diarmuid Gavin's company, the development was part of the King's Fund's Enhancing the Healing Environment for Care at End of Life programme and was the first of its kind in the country.
The design incorporates three major zones, including a garden and pavilion, which accommodate patients confined to beds or wheelchairs. Planting has been chosen to provide year-round interest and artworks enhance the aesthetic experience.
Choosing it as the winner, category head judge, Sarah Waller, said: “Space has been maximised and the pavilion allows for use, even in the rain. The pleached trees and coloured walls help to make the space private and intimate and there are lots of different areas to sit. This is a special space amid the hectic activity of an acute hospital that is already much appreciated by patients, relatives and staff.”
Do you think you have a project that could qualify for the Award for Best External Environment ? If so, click here to read more about this year’s event and all the categories, and to submit your entry. The closing date is 28 June and each entry costs just £99 plus VAT. You can enter as many categories as you wish, but entries must be adapted to suit the particular category being entered.
Click here to see all the winners from 2012 and the reasons they were singled out for praise by our judges.
If you need further help or advice on your entry call Jo Makosinski on 020 7193 8083 or email jom@hpcimedia.com. There are also some exciting opportunities to sponsor awards and to exhibit at the champagne reception that will be held prior to the awards ceremony. To discuss a tailor-made package, or to book your seat at the ceremony, contact Stephen Fontana by email at stephenf@hpcimedia.com or call 020 7193 1641; or Ali Badr alib@hpcimedia.com or call 020 7193 6654.