ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
an abundance of green space/access to nature.) The final major driver/aspiration in designing successful LD environments is more subjective. Although risk forms a significant part of the brief, new designs need to address the institutional stigmas of the past. What an LD setting should look like is a difficult question, and presents different reactions depending on your viewpoint. Not a hospital, not a ‘unit’, not a home. Such environments defy definition, and so we work hard to create a passive, intentionally ambiguous design aesthetic befitting the diversity of the condition. Ideally the building is a ‘supporting player’ in the care story, with service-users allowed to mould and influence their environment. Particular care in designing entrances/approaches, playing with scale and arrangement, and muted and blended material palettes, all help in this regard. Institutional design traits of the past (such as airlocks, secure entrance receptions, mesh fencing, and imposing structures etc) are to be avoided, with new settings having a strong narrative and sense of place/locale. Although the above appears
onerous, the results are nothing short of transformational. Sensory designed spaces, in smaller, more manageable clusters, offering individual flexibility, and ‘human’ spaces wrapped around accessible and healing garden areas, are not only well suited for LD services, but equally applicable to more generic inpatient mental health settings, including trauma- informed care settings. I will now explore two of our most recent/current LD inpatient schemes.
Aspen Wood Aspen Wood is the new 40-bed, £35 m Learning Disability Low Secure Forensic inpatient unit for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, built on the Maghull Health Park. The new facility delivers two 20-bed bespoke LD inpatient wards
Left: Café, social, and forum spaces give incentives and motivation to service-users to come off ward, interact, and develop social skills. Pictured is the café at Aspen Wood.
Below: At Aspen Wood, Gilling Dod says the building form/geometry was used ‘to apportion space/views, promote either movement or pause, and reach out into the landscape’.
sub-divided into four five-bedded living units, full OT/support spaces, therapy and sensory rooms – including de-escalation/ immersive therapy spaces, and low/high stimulus areas. The new building is set in its own landscaped oasis, and the external design is both integral and symbiotic with the architecture. The project involved extensive brief
development/stakeholder engagement, including identifying and responding to the specific and emerging needs of vulnerable mental health service-users with pronounced learning disabilities. The project also required innovation to meet the intrinsic balance of safety vs therapeutic design delivered in a sometimes challenging environment. The building was delivered under the
ProCure22 NHS framework, with IHP as the PSCP. Design / construction started pre- the pandemic, and continued throughout lockdown under special dispensation from the NHS. Completion was achieved in September 2023.
The project was a direct response to
the 2015 national plan, Building the right support: A national implementation plan to develop community services and close inpatient facilities (NHS England), the objective of which was to transform care and treatment for people with learning disabilities by ensuring that services are provided in more appropriate, therapeutic, and productive settings. The new building is also part of the Trust’s long-term redevelopment of the Ashworth site into the Maghull Health Park, and acts as the gateway building, flagship, and landmark scheme, reflecting the core values of the Trust, and embodying its commitment to modern, quality, and progressive mental health services. The new building marks a new benchmark for the design of inpatient forensic Learning Disabilities settings, both nationally and internationally.
Andrew Arnold explains: “In terms of form/materials used at Aspen Wood, these were intentionally ambiguous and muted, with minimal visual noise to suit LD criteria.”
THE NETWORK | NOVEMBER 2024
Context The brief for the new LD development was to ‘move the dial’ on the stigma around mental health services, and reflect the modern values, ethos, and culture advocated by the Trust, i.e. person- centred, progressive, and forward-thinking mental health services supporting local and regional communities. The new building also reinforces the Trust’s/site’s status as a centre of excellence for mental health services nationally/internationally. Being part of a larger masterplan for the redevelopment of the site, we worked closely with the Trust and local authority planning department to ensure that the scheme complemented and enriched the Local Development Plan for the area. Extensive landscape enhancements, including the creation of blue/green biodiversity areas, helped rewild a brownfield site. The design draws on learnings from other sectors (SEN schools) with Sensory design/neurodiversity at its heart. Through intensive service-user engagement and clinical workshops with the Trust team we
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Courtesy of Christian Smith
Courtesy of Christian Smith
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