HEALTHCARE DESIGN PROJECT REPORT
BUILDING PROJECTS
BIRMINGHAM DENTAL HOSPITAL EDGBASTON
A bastion of health
Britain’s first new stand-alone dental hospital and school in 40 years, on the site of a former BBC studio, also has healthy environmental credentials. Ray Philpott reports
O
n the outskirts of Birmingham, the BBC’s long-defunct Pebble Mill Studios site in Birmingham is being transformed into a life sciences and health- care campus.
At its heart is the new £50m Birmingham Dental Hospital and School of Dentistry, a state-of-the-art teaching and clinical facility, which enhances Birmingham’s reputation as a hub for medicine and science. Designed by Worcester-based One Creative Environments, the hospital in Edgbaston is the first of a number of poten- tial healthcare facilities being constructed on the 27-acre former studio site and forms part of a vast network of organisations, surgeries, medical facilities and hospitals in the area known as the Edgbaston Medical Quarter.
The new facility replaces the current 1960s dental hospital in the city centre and will host more than 600 undergraduate, postgraduate students and trainees each academic year.
It comprises a long, rectangular south
wing, which is home to a range of services for the public and a y-shaped north wing providing world-class research facilities and a modern learning environment. These four-storey, concrete-framed constructions are linked by a steel-framed atrium and central reception area at ground floor, with entrances on two levels. The steel-framed top floor of both blocks contains the plant.
Dental chairs and surgeries are located in the south block while the north block has dedicated teaching rooms, a library, flexible learning zones, laboratories and research facilities. The design takes into account the heavy servicing required for these facilities and the benefits of placing laboratories near plant areas.
Although a seemingly straightforward concept on plan, the end product is the result of a carefully thought out and clever design. Working to a tight budget, it’s been skilfully evolved to meet the complex requirements of the medical practitioners, teaching staff, students and key stakeholders within the hospital’s many clinical departments.
Meeting complex needs
Plans to relocate the old dental hospital had been ongoing for some time when One became involved in 2010. One was commis- sioned to undertake a feasibility study to analyse various development sites, with Pebble Mill emerging as the front-runner. Consultations followed and after gaining detailed planning consent in 2012, construction began in 2013.
The landmark development has been led by Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, together with its partners the University of Birmingham, Birmingham and Solihull LIFT (BaS LIFT), Prime plc, Galliford Try, Calthorpe Estates and One. One’s managing director Matt Tebbatt
says: “We had a year of weekly consulta- tions and meetings with a large and diverse array of stakeholders and user groups. The facility needed to be located near the University campus with good transport links. Inside, ease of wayfinding was high on the agenda, as was clear division between teaching spaces and clinical spaces and the need for each dental clinic to have easy access to the imaging department.” Tebbatt adds: “Ultimately, the interior layout is actually relatively simple, but getting there has been anything but. We had to ensure all departments are proportion- ately sized and in the right position, so patients – who are often anxious and in
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We had to ensure departments were in the right position so patients can move with the minimum of stress
Matt Tebbatt, One Creative Environments
ADF OCTOBER 2016
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