42 PROJECT REPORT: HEALTHCARE BUILDINGS
Hopefully we may reach a time when such genuinely caring building design isn’t a stunning and sadly paradoxical exception in healthcare, but something that we can rightfully come to expect
Timber PROJECT FACTFILE
Client: Maggie’s Architect: Heatherwick Studio Landscape designer: Balston Agius Lighting consultant: Lighting Bureau Structural engineer: AKT - II Main contractor: Sir Robert McAlpine Timber contractor: Blumer Lehmann Table manufacturer: Temper Studio
The decision to use timber – in addition to its therapeutic natural qualities and abilities to construct the building’s sculptural form – was also a response to the complexities of the site. The sloping, and also contaminated, land would have required “significant amounts of deep piling,” says Tenorio. Instead, a lightweight set of connected pavilion-type structures over a “rough” slab would provide the minimal loads and maximum environmental benefit. A further pragmatic reason to choose timber was that its inherent insulating properties mean that the structure could be used exposed, but also running from the interior to the exterior, “without having very complicated cold bridging details,” says Tenorio. The glulam fins in turn provide structural support, in combination with the slab and lightweight timber cassette walls, providing a monolithic whole that avoided the need for steel connecting plates, giving cost savings. Structurally, the building is virtually all-
timber, including the lift core, however window frames are aluminium due to their size. The internal carpentry, such as the bespoke handrails, was done by local craftsmen from Yorkshire, who, Tenorio reports, “were inspired by the building and its purpose, which really helped bring everyone together.” The CLT roofs’ design challenge was to remain watertight while providing the layered build up that would support thriving
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gardens, featuring trees, shrubs and flowers. The system chosen was low-tech, specified with the landscapers and roofer, “a combination of working with different trades.” It features automated irrigation, but is simple and low-maintenance, comprising CLT slab, OSB layers forming the drainage gradients, protected by a membrane, an “egg box” drainage layer, and finally, a lightweight layer of soil. The changing gradient has been used to make areas that offer deeper soil for larger trees.
Reactions Tenorio gave a talk at the hospital during the project’s gestation, and one comment he received vividly demonstrated both the power of the design, and the lack of expectation from patients thanks to their previous experience of health buildings. A cancer patient asked him, “Is that building really going to be for us?” Now, following the project’s completion, the building is a huge success, supporting users in a landscape-embracing environment that changes through the seasons. Tenorio highlights how its comforting form delighted one user, a young girl, prompting her to say she loves coming to the centre because “it’s like her blanket.”
The centre received 3,300 visits before it was locked down in March 2020 (it reopened in the summer and continues to support visitors and families both in person and remotely over Zoom). On revisiting in June, its project architect saying happily that the garden was “flourishing, and changing, and will be a continual surprise.” Around a third of users have been NHS staff, using this reassuring and beautiful space as a breakout area from the extra challenges they are facing from Covid.
Hopefully we may reach a time when such genuinely caring building design isn’t a stunning and sadly paradoxical exception in healthcare, but something that we can rightfully come to expect.
ADF JANUARY 2021
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