ARCHITECTURE AND BIOPHILIA
but we sought to avoid a sea of cars engulfing the building, so the car park is sited to one side, allowing us to maintain a green, open frontage to the hospital’s approach and entrance. Open parkland to the west of the hospital includes wildflower meadow and grassland, planted with specimen parkland trees that extend right up to the building. Within the built environment of the hospital, the public realm and open space offers a healthy and therapeutic environment, providing opportunities for relaxation and exercise for patients, staff, and visitors.
Internal courtyards
Using a considered palette of materials to respect and reflect its surroundings, this integration with the landscape continues within the main hospital complex. A series of five internal courtyards overlooked by the wards bring natural daylight and an attractive and restful outlook, with natural, visual interest and stimulus throughout the year. The design concept draws on the spirit of the original spring that was located on the hospital site, using planting, paving, and decorative features, to convey the sense of the original tributary moving through each space, reflecting the different local landscapes it passes through, from open heath and woodland to lowland meadow. Each courtyard has a different planting character, but will be tied together by the ‘tributary’. As far as possible, native species have been planted in preference to non-native, but in all planting sources of pollen, nectar, berry, and other food sources for insects and birds have been actively considered. The latter will also be planted for their sensory qualities and seasonal interest.
Martin Jones
Martin Jones, Landscape director at BDP’s Bristol studio, now in his 35th year at the practice, has been responsible for leading the site planning and landscape design on some of the firm’s most prestigious and complex projects. He currently leads the landscape and urbanism team in the Bristol studio covering projects in the south west and South Wales.
Driven by design quality and designing with nature, his decision-making process is underpinned by sustainability, impact on the environment, climate change, and maximising value for money, and he has a particular interest in therapeutic landscapes in healthcare environments. He has played a key role on a number of significant healthcare developments, including Queen Elizabeth Hospital Romford, Southmead Hospital Bristol, Heatherwood Hospital Ascot, and the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran.
66 Health Estate Journal September 2020
Windows from the wards and patient bedrooms at the Grange University Hospital will look out internally onto vibrant, natural spaces that change with the seasons.
Windows from the wards and patient bedrooms will look out internally onto these vibrant, natural spaces that change with the seasons. This seasonal and varied planting concept also extends to the central lawn area at the main entrance, with its flowing carpet of vibrant heathers reflecting the local heathland and parkland within the grounds of the historic Llanfrechfa Grange. This will be overlooked by the floor-to-ceiling glass walled frontage of the hospital restaurant, with views across the lawn to the countryside beyond. Situated on the first floor, the restaurant facade is wholly transparent, with an external balcony terrace that doubles up
as a sheltered walkway underneath on the approach from the car park to the main entrance.
Interaction with the original landscape
Built-in protection for the Grade II-listed Grange House and the adjacent walled garden brings a further opportunity to interact with the original landscape. Part of the original Grange estate, we worked with a group of local volunteers to clean, clean up, and restore the walled garden, returning it to some of its former glory. Our concept is that it will become a popular place to get some fresh air and exercise, demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of planting and gardening. Possible future uses include a productive garden that can be managed as a community project, with potential for a café, shop, nursery, or allotment. Elsewhere on the site, a Play Garden provides access to nature for the hospital’s youngest patients and visitors, with timber fencing and shelter, beech hedging, and a border of colourful sensory planting, maximising the use of natural materials.
So much has changed since Ulrich’s now famous ‘View through the window study’, as understanding has grown of the power of nature on recovery, healing, and wellbeing. The challenge now is to build on this work, and find ways of capturing the evidence and monitoring the outcomes on patient health and staff recruitment and retention. We embrace, embed, and celebrate nature in healthcare design at every opportunity, often requiring creative solutions to significant financial and practical complexities. Fortunately, this is a challenge we relish.
hej
©Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
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