New neonatal unit by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios opens in Bath
THE DYSON CENTRE for Neonatal Care opened its doors on the 23rd July to its first babies. The Royal United Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in Bath, has been transferred from its existing small, cramped facilities into its pioneering new home. The project, funded as a 50/50
partnership by NHS budgets and fundraising by The Forever Friends Appeal, has resulted in a dramatically different and improved environment in which the RUH can care for the 500
premature and sick babies that it looks after each year. A pioneering holistic and therapeutic approach towards the new building has created a new low carbon unit allowing the staff to practice new methods of care for premature and sick babies. The building consists of a single
storey new‐build extension, and the refurbishment of the space occupied by the existing NICU facility. The new‐build element accommodates the clinical, support
and reception functions as a discreet but contemporary intervention. The refurbished element comprises staff and parents’ facilities. The two elements are linked by a new ‘umbilicus’ which also provides an access point for emergency vehicles. The new building encloses an external courtyard space which provides both vista and breakout from reception and parents areas. The grouping of the care rooms forms a route around the staff base which is the heart of the unit The clockwise circuit of cot rooms
forms a diagram of intensity of care, beginning with intensive care, then on to high dependency, then special care, on to the parents’ rooms, then finally home. From parents’ feedback progress along this ‘route’ is very important psychologically – it is important that the ever‐decreasing intensity of care is legible to parents.
The consulting examination and
treatment spaces are carefully daylit. Parents and staff can now perceive changing external conditions through day and night, increasing well‐being. The heart of the clinical area is generously roof lit providing daylight to all the central spaces within. Within the care areas light is carefully controlled to ensure that babies gain an awareness of day and night as they develop. Sustainability in construction and
use has been central to the design of the new unit. The team were adamant that the new NICU should not be a one‐off showcase for sustainability, but should serve as a template and catalyst for sustainable healthcare design by challenging existing standards, defining new targets and developing strategies replicable elsewhere in the health sector. The project has achieved Breeam
Image © Craig Aukland / Fotohaus
“Excellent”, and incorporates a sedum roof for rainwater attenuation, and to increase biodiversity on the site. HB
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