Faithful+Gould has been appointed to project manage the development of the country’s largest doctors’ surgery at the University of Nottingham’s University Park Campus.
Planning permission was granted at the end of April and the new centre, which is replacing the existing Cripps Health Centre at the university, is expected to be completed in the summer of 2018 ahead of the start of the university’s autumn term.
Made possible by a transformational £9m donation from the Cripps Foundation; the centre – the country’s largest by patient list – will provide an holistic approach to primary health and dental care for the university and wider community.
Increasing the current clinical space, the primary design ethos, drawn up by CPMG Architects, is to create a residential-scale building that sits harmoniously in the green, environmentally-friendly spaces of the campus, which came second in the 2016 UIGreenMetric World University Ratings.
“This is an exciting, high-profile project,” says Neil Walker, director of Faithful+Gould’s Nottingham office.
“When finished, the clinical space for University of Nottingham students and the local community will be doubled.
“The plan is to create a non-institutional front of house with a highly-efficient back of house, with clearly-defined separate areas.”
Looking like a pavilion in a park, rather than the usual interpretation of an urban health centre; the interior aims to balance a highly-efficient, standard plan with a non-institutional, patient-friendly environment inspired by domestic spaces.
“The new Cripps Health Centre at the University of Nottingham will be a state-of-the-art facility,” said Farhan Mubashir, Faithful+Gould lead project manager, “centred on a co-ordinated approach to student health and wellbeing.”
Surrounded by high-quality landscaping, there will be enhanced clinical consulting rooms, minor operations suites, a patient observation bay, physiotherapy areas, dentist treatment rooms, a pharmacy, and mental health suite, as well as training rooms and offices.
“The new health centre, with its first-class facilities, will enhance the student experience even further and demonstrates the importance of our commitment to not just their physical wellbeing, but to their mental health as well,” said Gaynor Bradshaw Wilson, lead project manager at the University of Nottingham.
“The current building hosts the largest doctors’ surgery by patient number in the UK and thanks to the donation from the Cripps Foundation, the clinical space will be doubled.
In the new building, the GP and dental accommodation will be in separate wings which pivot along the contours from a shared double-height central space hosting the entrance and reception.
The proposed health centre’s pharmacy will be independent of the wings, occupying a prominent position towards the car park, reinforcing an existing axis within the Cripps Hall and creating a courtyard for a wellbeing garden featuring medicinal planting.
Construction of the new health centre is expected to start within a month.
