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PROJECT REPORT: HEALTHCARE BUILDINGS
ROYAL LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY LIVERPOOL
A singular approach to care in the city
A new replacement for a 70s hospital which removed valuable parts of central Liverpool, this major new health facility for the city bridges healthcare and academia, restores urban quality, and has more ensuite single rooms than any other UK hospital. James Parker reports
T
he new Royal Liverpool University Hospital finally opened in October 2022, after a saga which included the demise of this PFI project’s original contractor Carillion, and a consequent financial shortfall (£300m) to make. However, the result now achieved represents a major milestone for the NHS; the biggest hospital yet constructed with all of its 640 bed rooms being single and ensuite, and restores urban fabric lost during the late 20th century. Reflecting a move in recent decades towards single bedroom provision in modern healthcare facilities, driven principally by infection control requirements but also other factors, Liverpool’s new hospital is a standard bearer for the concept.
The client is Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT), which also runs Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital and Liverpool University Dental Hospital, and was designed by NBBJ/HKS, a bespoke collaboration between the two architectural practices. The new hospital has 18 operating theatres for both inpatient and day-case surgery, and 40 critical care beds for patients in the intensive care and high dependency units. In addition, there’s a substantial colocated clinical research facility, which, says
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architect HKS, “will place LUHFT as a national and international leader in clinical trials and studies.”
Site & response
Creating a new general hospital in a city centre location means thinking about the wider urban planning ramifications and potential benefits of such a major addition, and with the same level of rigour as the many clinical drivers involved. Liverpool, as David Lewis, partner at NBBJ, confirms, has been transformed since being the European City of Culture in 2008, making the architects’ task of knitting into this new urban fabric even more critical. The existing low-rise 1970s hospital in the centre of the old urban block, which the new unit replaces, was not an architectural response that did justice to the area, as it destroyed the historic urban density and connection to the wider city. David Lewis explains that the design strategy was to “reconnect the site back into the urban fabric,” including creating a central public square which echoes Abercromby Square, a key part of the university estate located a few hundred yards to the south. There was a further incentive to emphasise the potential landmark nature of the building, due to the fact it sits on a prime position anchoring the rest of the development of the area. This is a
ADF JULY/AUGUST 2023
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