DESIGN IN MENTAL HEALTH AWARDS 2023


place would I want to be in if I were using these mental healthcare services?’ An early challenge was to understand that an overriding focus on risk leads to sterile, custodial surroundings. Concentrating those with severe mental illness in closed wards, and de-risking the environment, means service-users have little to do, apart from eating, sleeping, taking medication, and watching TV – placing excessive, and possibly unnecessary, burdens on staff resourcing, and leading to demeaning and undignified environments.


Project of the Year – New Build UK


Hospital in Dublin. The entry said: “The 24,000m2


hospital, accommodating 170


high, medium, and low secure mental health service-users, was conceived as a small village to break down its overall scale, creating a less intimidating, more normalised environment. Designed with standardisation and careful integration of secure measures, the varying acuity/ security of each building is purposely discreet. Replacing the existing 1850s Central Mental Hospital, the campus is designed to reflect new national policy and models of care, with flexibility to adapt to future changes in service delivery.” The entry continued: While security


measures were informed by the UK’s High Secure standards, the overall mass of the inpatient buildings is carefully reduced: the roof pitch is kept low, with a large overhang, and a dark coloured rendered band below this – creating an illusion of it appearing to float. Each building has a distinct front door and colour theme to assist wayfinding. Each building is located to fit with the existing topology and mature woodland, creating a more organic arrangement. The hospital provides opportunities for service-users to


engage with the world around them. It was designed via a successful collaboration between Dublin-based Scott Tallon Walker Architects, and UK-based healthcare architects, Medical Architecture, the client, and the wider project team, with service- user engagement playing a key role in framing the design approach.” The award was presented by Philip


Ross. The judges said: “Generous spaces. Well-considered interiors, and appears to deliver on wide range of project goals, including wellbeing generally, as well as sustainability.’


Project of the Year – New Build UK The award for Project of the Year – New Build UK, again sponsored by Kingsway Group (whose Mark McMahon presented the award), went to 4D Studio Architects, for the Trinity Building for the South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. The architects’ entry said: “We were fortunate in our work at Springfield that we started with a client brief that prioritised patient well-being, but the most important attitude which guided our work over the 12 years it took to deliver the Trinity building was: ‘What kind of a


‘Turning around the paradigm’ “We have sought to turn the paradigm around, and start by imagining activities possible for service-users to undertake independently with an acceptable level of risk, according to their level of acuity and individual desires. We have designed spaces and nooks where patients can make tea or coffee, read, play games, sit outside, garden, cook, exercise, dance, sing, listen to music, pray, meditate, work, use a computer, and learn new skills etc. We worked with Trust clinicians to find ways to allow greater individual empowerment to fill a day with meaningful pursuits, and make a service-user’s stay therapeutic, beneficial, and safe.” Key elements prioritised included: l Daylight: all spaces have daylight and a view of the sky.


l ‘Inside-Outside’: wherever possible rooms have windows that open in two directions, ‘vastly improving the connection between indoors and outdoors, and giving a sense of openness so often lacking in mental health facilities’.


l Quiet: Adequate sound insulation between spaces, and sound-absorbing surfaces within them.


l Outdoor space: providing as much outdoor space as possible within a direct line of sight of the ward base.


l Gardens: incorporating gardens with a variety of plants, textures, and colours, that change throughout the seasons.


l ‘Comfortable and cosy’: providing pods, ‘nooks’, bay windows, window seats, and built-in furniture in corridors and other functional spaces ‘to create


Project of the Year – Refurbishment 14 AUGUST 2023 | THE NETWORK


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44