Architectural and town planning firm, Stride Treglown, has submitted a planning application for a purpose-built, state-of-the-art critical treatment hospital that will provide acute hospital services for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The hospital, which was designed under co-authorship with HASSELL, will centralise services for the most critically-ill and at-risk patients in one place, enabling the provision of consultant-delivered care on site 24/7 and intensive care teams around the clock.
It is located on a site that allows for rapid emergency access for the surrounding population and will provide services for those who have suffered life-threatening injuries, heart attacks or strokes, or those who require high-risk or complex elective surgical procedures as well as obstetric care. A cancer treatment centre will also be located on the same site.
Mary Edwards of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for a population of approximately 600,000 people across Hampshire and parts of west Berkshire, said: “Creating this hospital means we can make services even safer for the sickest and most at risk because we can provide consultant-delivered care and critical care services on site 24/7 in one central place - a model that will lead the way for the NHS and will provide even higher-quality care and better outcomes for patients.”
To deliver the project, Stride Treglown was appointed to lead a full multi-disciplinary team. MJ Medical developed the brief, working closely with the trust to interpret the project vision in detailed operational policies and adjacency matrices, mapping how the vision could then be achieved.
HASSELL, acting as concept, landscape and masterplan architects and the clinical planning lead, developed the design, which was progressed along the Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level 2, with Stride Treglown.
Influenced by the surrounding countryside, and designed to enhance sustainability and environmental performance while minimising the impact upon the surrounding countryside, the concept follows initiatives that endorse a green setting for healthcare environments based on research evidence promoting the positive health benefits of having access to nature. The intent is to immerse the hospital into nature through the planting of a new woodland, which will develop over time to form a ‘hospital copse’, together with landscaped courtyards and rooftop gardens.
The hospital departments are arranged around a series of overlapping tree-filled and colour-coded courtyards, providing orientation, landscape views and access to both natural light and natural ventilation where possible. Corridors within departments, and the hospital street, move alongside the courtyards, reinforcing the notion of a hospital in the woodland.
Mechanical and electrical engineers, Hoare Lea, used the three-stage ‘Be Lean, Be Clean, Be Green’ approach to ensure the energy requirements are passively reduced before the introduction of energy-using systems.
Detailed SMART modelling circulation analysis and flow simulation of patient, staff and visitors has been carried out by BuroHappold Engineering, which also acted as structural and civil engineers on the project, to test the performance of the building against set criteria.
Brought on board in early 2014, the project team has developed the proposals from the briefing stages through to the submission of the planning application at the start of April 2015.
Daniel Van Luttmer, divisional director for Stride Treglown and lead designer on the scheme, said: "We are delighted to have led the design team for this pioneering hospital project, and, combining the trust’s innovative healthcare provision with the site’s rural location, we have been able to design a hospital that can deliver rapid emergency care to those who need it most in a location that promotes the positive health benefits of nature, aiding their recovery further.”
The development proposals were the subject of a public exhibition in February, attracting some 420 visitors over three days. The application, the subject of an Environmental Impact Assessment collated by Stride Treglown, is anticipated to be determined in August 2015 and is also subject to local NHS consultation and local planning processes.
The £150m+ project is anticipated to be the largest UK major hospital project to be delivered via the ProCure 21+ construction framework to date.