ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN


£60 m Bexhill facility’s natural hillside setting


Robin Graham, an architect at Gilling Dod Architects, who oversees many of the practice’s flagship mental health projects, reports on its design of a new 54-bedded adult and older adult inpatient facility currently under construction for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in an undulating hillside setting near Bexhill in East Sussex. ‘True co-production’ has, he explains, had a key role.


Construction is progressing in earnest on the new £60 m Combe Valley Hospital in Bexhill. Nestled into a hillside on the edge of Combe Valley Countryside Park, this natural setting will support the hospital in providing the highest quality therapeutic environment for its patients across East Sussex and beyond. As part of the national ‘eradicating


dormitories’ programme, Combe Valley is the innovative new mental health hospital for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, designed by Gilling Dod Architects. The build, by Kier, is making good progress, and when complete, the new hospital building will provide 54 en-suite bedrooms across three adult inpatient mental health wards – with two for working age adults, and one for older adults. In addition, the building will provide shared therapy spaces, a visiting suite, a village green garden, a neuromodulation suite, and education spaces.


Existing facility’s limitations Combe Valley will replace the Trust’s existing Department of Psychiatry currently located at Eastbourne District General Hospital. That building was adapted from a former acute hospital building, with wards across two floors. External spaces are limited, with courtyard gardens shared at ground level. The wards wrap around central courtyards,


l Project value: £60 m. l GIFA: 5,325 m2


Project information .


l Departments: Two Working Age Adult wards, and one Older Adult ward, neuromodulation suite, education suite.


l Number of Beds: 54. l BREEAM Target: Excellent. l MMC Target: 75%.


with external car parking spaces merely a footpath distance away from windows. Patients stay in dormitory accommodation, and have limited access to outdoor space. There are poor lines of sight, and poor levels of natural light, within the building. The Trust, in partnership with NHS


Sussex, the Integrated Care Board for the county, recognised that the Department of Psychiatry was no longer fit for purpose, which prompted the creation of the Redesigning In-Patient Services: East Sussex (RIS:ES) Programme. The moving of the service from


Eastbourne District General Hospital to Bexhill will also allow East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust to develop its own hospital site. A robust client and design team ambition to get things right has been


infused throughout the project. This has been a true co-production process. The outcome of this has been the placing of Experts by Experience at the heart of the engagement process. Beyond the typical clinical, staffing, and estates consultees, other key stakeholders included trauma-informed specialists, as well as neurodiversity/dementia-friendly groups. Each discipline brought a positive desire to make the building the best it possibly can be, which in turn was warmly embraced by the design team and Kier.


Location The chosen site for Combe Valley is a pleasant greenfield position on a gently undulating hillside site on the north- eastern perimeter of the coastal town of Bexhill-on-Sea. The site is set within the context of the north-east Bexhill masterplan, which is the largest expansion of the town for some time. The hospital’s name of Combe Valley is taken from the countryside park located nearby, which covers approximately 1480 acres, and features two Sites of Special Scientific Interest across the habitats of reedbed, woodland, and beach. To the site’s west and south are suburban residential streets. The natural environment of this site is an ideal setting for a mental health hospital, providing an exciting opportunity


The chosen site for Combe Valley is a pleasant greenfield position on a gently undulating hillside site on the north-eastern perimeter of the coastal town of Bexhill-on-Sea.


THE NETWORK | MAY 2024 27


All photos used courtesy of Gilling Dod Architects


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