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PROJECT REPORT: HEALTHCARE BUILDINGS
Emergency, inpatients or day surgery, “to maximise patient flow and make that flow efficient and easy, to help them find their way around.” The critical care level is located next to theatres and directly above Emergency, which were optimal adjacencies. Where patients are fully ambulatory such as when arriving at day surgery, “a very specific route has been planned, versus a patient who may be arriving in a wheelchair or in a bed,” she adds.
The two glazed stair cores to north and south extremities are accessible for patients, and they have been finished to a high specification to maximise the quality of the experience. The staff stair to the south corner is lit at night to try and present a welcoming face to the city.
Form
In terms of its form, the architects “wanted the building to step up” visually, says Lewis, with the eye-catching cranked medium-rise ward block still the tallest point, sitting at the bottom of the gently sloping site. “Traditionally, hospitals have a flat top, but we wanted to emphasise that corner.” The resulting form is a dynamic rectilinear statement that takes full advantage of the ‘prow’ of the site. It’s topped off by the restaurant for both staff and visitors on the 10th floor, giving diners great views of the city.
The building appears massive from the exterior, but on plan it’s revealed as fairly shallow-planned, thanks to the two large courtyards, bringing copious light into internal areas. However, cross ventilation was not possible due to the density requirements and site constraints. As it’s a city centre site, car parking provision is relatively minimal, but there are 300 visitor spaces located under a terrace, to reduce the visual impact of parking and to prioritise pedestrian amenity. It’s located on the ‘lower entrance’ level, with the ground level entrance one floor down. This avoided any need for excavation, instead the requirement was to build a flat terrace, leading from Prescott Street to the entrance where patients can be dropped off before parking.
A single interstitial floor
The third floor is taken up by an interstitial services level, which is a tweak on the established approach of including a series of low interstitial floors to obviate suspended ceilings for maintenance in hospital
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF JULY/AUGUST 2023
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