ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
A CGI view of the concourse – the location for the ‘street life’ of the NCH.
Creating a therapeutic environment Colour, natural light, and visual connectivity to landscape all work together to create an environment which will be uplifting in a way that appeals to the broad age range of patients – from toddlers through to older teenagers. This is clear in the bedroom design, where positioning back- to-back en-suites interstitially between bedrooms affords maximum views in and out of the bedroom, benefitting staff- patient communication and patients’ sense of connection with the ward and the outdoors. Sliding glass doors and relatively shallow room proportions also augment the penetration of daylight into the ward corridor and staff zones. Colour strongly affects emotions, and sensitive selection can positively influence the wellbeing of patients and staff. We selected a palette of vibrant and bold accent colours at arrival points and thresholds, with a gradual shift towards a more subtle palette, creating a relaxing ambience in the more intimate and private spaces.
Complementary sustainability measures Complementary sustainability measures contribute to the creation of an environment that is intrinsically therapeutic, and supports the healing process through its physical qualities. Natural daylight is
A CGI view of a patient bedroom, with glass sliding doors to the inside, and views out to the Rainbow Garden.
provided to the majority of theatres and inhabited rooms. Bedrooms are naturally ventilated, with patient-controlled high and low-level openings in the façade to avoid draughts. Passivhaus fabric insulation values reduce the energy load, helping the building achieve its BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and A3 Building Energy Rating performance targets. Integrating landscape design through
extensive gardens and terraces at upper levels – including the Rainbow Garden, which is sheltered and contained inside the ward oval – assists in distracting children and de-stressing family visits. A sensory planting theme is applied across all gardens, stimulating the senses, and encouraging interaction with nature. These spaces offer therapeutic benefits by providing opportunities for learning, play, and distraction, as well as respite from the clinical environment for patients, families, and staff.
Form and identity Child and family-centered identity permeates all aspects of the design – from the quality of individual internal spaces and finishes, to the hospital’s external form. Breaking down the scale of the hospital was vital in giving identity to its different parts, aiding orientation, and making it feel less daunting and more recognisable,
with the scale of things familiar to children, such as houses and trees. This was also an important consideration in its relationship to the wider urban and neighbouring residential context. A central aim was to create a strong, simple form for the wards that would become synonymous with the NCH, and form a distinctive presence on the Dublin skyline when viewed from afar. The ward oval is light in finish, with glass and aluminium contrasting with the stone of the lower floors, and reinforcing the sense of the oval as a separate pavilion set in a floating garden. Its balconies and recesses, with their flashes of colour, give rhythm to the elevation, and clarify the different ward identities. There is a sense of the rugged lower floors being ‘below ground’, and the wards being ‘above ground’, with the distinct band of the ‘interstitial floor’, continuous around the building, reading as the ‘ground line’ for the garden above. Enclosed within the ward oval is the Rainbow Garden, and, at its centre, the biome, a three-storey light and open glazed diagrid form which preserves the continuity of the garden and its cross- views, while evoking the playful quality of botanical gardens.
Suitability of stone From its maximum height of seven storeys above ground, the perceived scale is reduced along the western edge, where projecting granite finger blocks with glazed links between them appear as separate buildings at the scale of the three-storey residences opposite. Stone is associated with major civic buildings in Dublin, and was identified as the appropriate material for a building of national importance. Massing and orientation were arranged to maximise daylight and views to the many accessible outdoor spaces arranged around the building.
A concept diagram explaining the sectional organisation of the building. 48 Health Estate Journal August 2022
Construction The main frame consists of in-situ concrete slabs with pre-cast columns and walls. A 750 mm thick transfer slab at level 4 negotiates the transition from the oval
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