‘Landmark’ unit brings cancer services together

The new NGS Macmillan Unit for Chesterfield Royal Hospital opened last summer. The £10 million unit was designed by London and York-based architecture practice, The Manser Practice, on behalf of Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Macmillan Cancer Support, and sponsor, NGS (National Garden Scheme). The new unit was commissioned to gather the hospital’s fragmented cancer services into a single cancer care building to provide a totally integrated cancer care facility for the hospital. As one of the first buildings in Britain to be clad entirely in DuPont Corian, a solid surface rainscreen panelling material, the curvaceous white building is also a bold landmark on the edge of the campus.

Spectacular views

Chesterfield Royal Hospital approached the Manser Practice to design a new building that could combine its existing, dated, and fragmented cancer services into a purpose-built oncology centre, capturing spectacular views of the Derbyshire landscape. The design brief was to create a calm, non-clinical environment that would be much more than just a typical hospital department, while maintaining a high quality healthcare environment, both internally and externally. Our first challenge was to produce a brief to integrate the Oncology, Haematology, and Palliative care departments, into one building. We worked intensively with all the departments to define the care pathways, and a combined timetable to identify an efficient yet adequate number of key clinical rooms. We then took this brief and tested it against a series of potential locations around the site to identify the best location.