DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
Above: All the young people surveyed valued a building that was easy to navigate without supervision, and outdoor spaces with plentiful greenery and space to play games.
Above right: The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust says the Pears Maudsley Centre will be ‘a space of calm that facilitates dialogue, and inspires those who pass through it’.
Right: Leisure-based day spaces, therapy areas, and learning environments, all retain a sense of privacy, while remaining connected to the building’s hub and outdoor areas.
This history continues to inform our
work at the Trust. Since our founding, we have worked closely with King’s College London – where the Maudsley Hospital Medical School now operates under the name of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience – to not only treat mental health conditions, but also advance our understanding of those conditions through research and teaching.
Labyrinthine corridors However, some of our buildings on the Maudsley Hospital campus no longer meet the needs of modern healthcare practices. Its consultation, treatment, and waiting rooms are cramped and clinical, while its interior spaces rely heavily on artificial lighting, and are connected by narrow, labyrinthine corridors that can be difficult to navigate. As readers of The Network know well, developments in our understanding of mental health over the past century have gone hand in hand with an increased awareness of how architectural design shapes the way we relate to our environment, and in doing so affects our mental health and wellbeing. We knew that radical improvement and modernisation of our site would be essential to offering staff and patients the world-class facilities they deserve, and, equally, to maintaining our organisation’s global reputation for mental health excellence.
The Pears Maudsley Centre The Pears Maudsley Centre will do just that. It will have a total floor space of just under 10,000 m2
over eight levels,
including multiple outdoor terraces and rooftop gardens for the use of staff, patients, and visitors. These will be open, collaborative working spaces designed to facilitate exchange between clinical staff and researchers, and dedicated treatment, consultation, recreation, and education rooms integrated into a design that puts the experience and mental health needs of services-users first. The new facility will form a stark contrast to some of the Victorian spaces currently being used, creating an environment in which ground- breaking clinical services and research can flourish as part of a joint venture between the Trust, the Kings College London’s (KCL) Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and the Maudsley Charity. The shared vision of this partnership has been critical to the realisation of this project. Our aim is to create a collaborative hub that will accelerate the pace and societal impact of translational research, enabling the transformation of service delivery and outcomes for the Trust and its service-users. By working together and engaging in dialogue every day, leading clinicians and researchers in child and adolescent mental health will be able to address issues and find solutions with
Some of our buildings on the Maudsley Hospital campus no longer meet the needs of modern healthcare practices. Its consultation, treatment, and waiting rooms are cramped and clinical, while its interior spaces rely heavily on artificial lighting, and are connected by narrow, labyrinthine corridors
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unprecedented speed. It will also be the new purpose-built home of the Ofsted- rated ‘Outstanding’ Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School, which provides continuing education to young people while they are being treated in hospital.
Architects’ track record IBI Group was a natural candidate as the architect of this project. IBI has a strong record of successful, award-winning, and innovative projects within the healthcare and education sectors, as well as life sciences research facilities. In a number of these ventures the practice has developed design solutions to challenges in the care of young people with specific physical, emotional, and mental health needs. As a result, the practice understood from the outset that the Pears Maudsley Centre’s ambition to bring research and treatment together within a single facility represented a unique opportunity to increase positive outcomes for service- users in a field where early intervention, and therefore research and knowledge- sharing, are so critical.
Capital improvement The Trust has a strategic capital programme to improve its facilities, which include four hospital sites and 93 community properties, over the next decade. This programme will ensure that its property base is equipped to continue delivering world-class mental healthcare services, and aligned with the rapidly changing planning landscape across the country, in the capital, and within the South London health and social care system. The Pears Maudsley Centre is one of the most significant developments in this strategy.
Planning permission for the Centre was granted swiftly thanks to close
NOVEMBER 2022 | THE NETWORK
Images courtesy of IBI Group
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