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Artwork, Interiors, and Design


Service-user input key to St Bernard’s arts scheme


Jane Willis, director of Bristol-based Willis Newson, explains how the arts and health consultancy engaged service-users in decision-making around the art, interiors, colours, and furniture, for a new £60 million mental health building for the Medium Secure Unit at St Bernard’s Hospital in Ealing.


Thames Lodge, designed by David Morley Architects, and built by Kier as part of the redevelopment of St Bernard’s Hospital, has recently opened. When the original St Bernard’s Hospital was established in the 1830s – at the time as Middlesex County Asylum – it was reportedly the first purpose-built asylum in England and Wales, and was constructed in a neoclassical style with panoptican towers. The new Thames Lodge unit sits alongside the existing regional secure unit (RSU) and adolescent medium secure unit, the Wells Unit, on the site, surrounded by a secure perimeter, with one single entrance to create the Three Bridges Medium Secure Campus. When planning a new building for the


Medium Secure Unit, the team at St Bernard’s Hospital, which is operated by West London Mental Health NHS Trust, knew that they wanted to incorporate art, and that the project would require a high level of engagement to help service-users feel at home in the new facility. “The art and interior design were the only things we could really talk to the service- users about,” said redevelopment programme manager, St Bernard’s Hospital Medium Secure Unit, Barbara Wood. “We couldn’t ask their opinion on anti-ligature devices, or aspects of the design which affect security, but we could


Night and Day enamel panels in family visiting rooms by Alison Milner.


Corridor poems, and stencilled artwork created from service-users’ poems, by Alison Milner.


engage them in decision-making around the art, interiors, colours, and furniture.”


DEVELOPING A COHERENT APPROACH David Morley Architects had already identified areas of the building where art could be integrated into the fabric. The Trust then appointed us at Willis Newson to work with the practice to develop a coherent approach to art and interiors, including colour schemes, signage, and wayfinding, for the new West


London unit. The brief was: • To create a welcoming identity and a supportive environment.


• To ensure that the design was robust and affordable.


• To involve service-users in order to deliver engagement and ownership.


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The main entrance to the Three Bridges Medium Secure Campus. J u l y 2 0 1 6


THE NE TWORK


We put forward a vision, structure, and approach, for the project which involved using creative processes to translate a deep level of engagement with service-users into high quality artistic outputs made by professional designers and artists.


ART BASED ON LEARNING AND FEEDBACK “The art programme was prioritised based on learning and feedback from our last project, which was beautifully designed but – without any art – felt a little cold and sterile,” said Gerd Sortland, service change lead – Redevelopment Team, St Bernard’s Hospital Medium Secure Unit. “We wanted to deliver an environment that felt warm, homely, and welcoming, turning a clinical building into something that feels more like a home.” The new building will provide ward accommodation, therapy, education, and catering facilities, clinical and non-clinical support services, and a shared reception for the Three Bridges forensic campus.


SERVICE-USER INVOLVEMENT Participatory creative workshops were placed at the heart of the process, in order to involve people in decisions and choices for the unit, developing a sense of ownership of the new space. We planned the workshops to lead service-users through the engagement process step by step, going from a wide scope to a narrow focus, from group feedback to personal responses. We selected a visual artist to inform the visual element of the design process, and chose writing as the second activity, because people can connect with very powerful


Photo courtesy of John Sturrock.


Photos courtesy of John Sturrock.


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