ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION ARTICLES

Gordon Stirling, Sector director of Health at Tilbury Douglas, explains how construction can assist the NHS with its focus on ‘preventing sickness rather than focusing on the cure’.

Addressing the sizeable NHS maintenance backlog is driving the need for service partnerships that provide insight to support uptime and map out a path to modernisation and Net Zero, says Kas Mohammed, VP of Services for the UK and Ireland at Schneider Electric.

As the saying goes, ‘when you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp’. For NHS estates teams, that tension between firefighting and long-term planning is all too familiar. In this article, Paul Mercer, Stephen Wright, Suzanne MacCormick and Anisha Mayor explore how the Strategic Estates Management Advisory Platform (SEMAP) is helping professionals look beyond the day-to-day, tackling issues from PFI handbacks to digital transformation, and healthcare planning with a strategic lens.

Rehabilitating inpatients in the average UK hospital is almost an impossible task. Even the most skilled and experienced healthcare professional is limited by what they can achieve within confined patient rooms and busy hallways cluttered with trolleys and unused chairs and beds. Where gyms exist, they are mostly small and overcapacity. This article, written by Peter Eckersley, Iona McAllister, Rebecca Dunkerley, and Annase Wu, explores how thoughtfully designed inpatient rehabilitation spaces can improve patient outcomes, staff efficiency, and the overall recovery experience.

This summer’s three official heatwaves highlighted how unprepared many UK buildings are for extreme temperatures. While warmer weather may be welcome to some, for many it poses serious health risks. Hospitals, where safeguarding vulnerable people is paramount, are particularly exposed. Ola Bialas, Principal Sustainability consultant at Hoare Lea, explores how UK hospitals must adapt to rising temperatures, balancing patient safety, energy use and climate resilience.

Across the UK, nearly three million adults are currently out of work due to ill health. This is not just a public health concern but threatens to undermine regional economic growth, says Terry Stocks, director of Property and Healthcare lead UK&I at AtkinsRéalis. He explains how strategic investment in healthcare estates can improve wellbeing, regenerate communities, and drive long-term prosperity.

As the New Hospital Programme develops its Hospital 2.0 (H2.0) design, one of the most significant innovations is the move to100 per cent single bedrooms. To understand why this matters, and how the prototype bedroom is helping to solve problems before construction begins, HEJ spoke with Stuart Thatcher, Integration lead for Technical Services at the New Hospital Programme.

A new £110 m health and care complex at Catterick Garrison (HEJ – April 2023) – a joint project between the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the NHS – is under construction and due to open next year, and will provide a range of health services for military personnel and the local community, including general practice, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, mental health services, X-rays, and ultrasound. As Karina Dare, Primary Care Estates Strategy lead at NHS Property Services (NHSPS) reports, supporting Humber and North Yorkshire ICB and working with DIO (Defence Infrastructure Organisation) and the Defence Medical Services on this joint project was a first for NHSPS.

Sarah Walter, managing director of Charleston, South Carolina-based architecture and engineering firm, Page Southerland Page, and Nora Colman, an Assistant Professor in Paediatrics in the division of Paediatric Critical Care Medicine at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, discuss some of the most important elements in the quest to balance an open and welcoming space with sufficient security when designing children’s healthcare facilities.

Amy Krause, Architectural Design manager at private healthcare company, Mediclinic Southern Africa, takes a look at what she describes as ‘the seven flows’ of healthcare, what each contributes to a hospital or other healthcare facility, and the challenges in aligning them with stringent regulations and end-user expectations.

Sharon Cook, Healthcare lead at P+HS Architects, reflects on how the 10 WELL Concept areas were embedded into the design of the Northumbria Health and Care Academy, the UK’s first healthcare building to achieve WELL Gold certification, creating a workplace that the practice says ‘champions wellbeing, connection, and clinical excellence’.

The NHS estate is under increasing strain due to underinvestment, rising demand, and a £13.8 bn maintenance backlog. While high-quality estate is available, much of it remains underutilised, and optimising these assets is essential as the NHS shifts towards out-of-hospital care. Here, Baxendale Senior consultant, Kelsey Price, and head of Healthcare Estate Planning, Jim Brooks, and Abintra director, Tony Booty, argue that by combining sensor data with local knowledge, organisations can ‘uncover hidden capacity, optimise space, and reduce reliance on outdated buildings’. They explain how the two businesses are ‘helping healthcare organisations make smarter estate decisions’.

International healthcare consultancy, MJ Medical, is helping a local community bring healthcare to its high street. By refurbishing a derelict supermarket in Helston, it hopes to bring life into the Cornish town, and show what can be achieved across the UK, as director, Kieren Morgan reports.

Alex Warren, an associate director at The Manser Practice, an award-winning architectural firm specialising in healthcare design, discusses the positive impact that good interior design, signage, and wayfinding, can make in a range of healthcare facilities, for patients, staff, and visitors alike.

Harm Hollander, a practising Australian architect who has driven the design and procurement teams of major hospital projects around Australia and internationally, Oystein Tronstad, Physiotherapy clinical lead at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, and an experienced ICU clinician and researcher, and architect and clinical planner, Angelo Pagano, describe a research project undertaken at the Brisbane hospital which has looked to improve ICU bed bay environments through a variety of measures – from mitigating unwanted noise and incorporating distractive ceiling panels, to enhancing indoor air quality. The scheme was the subject of a post-occupancy evaluation.

Mott MacDonald’s Modern Methods of Construction and healthcare specialists, Ben Carlisle and Andrew Parks, and the business’s Industrialised Design and Construction director, Trudi Sully, believe that industrialisation of design and construction methods could reduce costs at every lifecycle stage of healthcare facilities, as well as improve the quality of patient care. The firm’s managing editor, Claire Smith, spoke to them to find out more.

Hiroshi Yasuhara, President of the Healthcare Engineering Association of Japan (HEAJ), discusses a study undertaken with the participation of 257 of the country’s hospitals into some of the key infrastructural and other adaptations they made to address a surge in patient numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2024 Smriti Singh – who has over 20 years’ experience providing strategic advice and delivering change and transformation programmes in the health and care sector, founded a strategic healthcare consultancy, Symbi Consulting – of which she is managing director. Here she, James Philipps, experienced architect and founder of architectural practice, Philipps & Co, and Neil Kukreja, a Medical Director and consultant surgeon, explore the key part clinical engagement can play in making new healthcare developments ‘more effective and more efficient’.

Jessica Whincop, an Architectural designer at Arcadis’ Architecture and Urbanism division, explains how a variety of sensory ‘tools’ – such as 3D printed models, and textured floorplans printed on large format paper using specialised raised, touch-sensitive ink, were developed to bring plans for the new Oriel facility being built for London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital to life for prospective users – including visually impaired people, during a series of patient engagement sessions.

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is embarking on a series of ‘transformative projects’ designed to improve patient care, enhance facilities, and ensure that families receive the best possible support during their healthcare journeys. As Mica Moore, a Business Support manager at the Trust explains, these ‘innovative schemes’ aim to reflect the world-class treatments provided inside the hospitals, while creating welcoming, safe, and sustainable environments for all who visit.