The recent pandemic has pushed the NHS estate to its limit, requiring a number of hospitals, and indeed other venues such as exhibition and conference centres, to instantly convert their premises to accommodate COVID patients, while simultaneously ensuring the safety of other patients and healthcare workers. There has been much impressive repurposing in response to these immediate challenges. However, the pandemic has also revealed the constraints of the NHS’s existing physical infrastructure, and highlighted an urgency to create more flexible environments that can easily adapt to newly identified human needs. At the same time, there is increasing pressure for buildings to focus on environmental performance and occupant wellbeing. How should healthcare designers best remodel their estates to meet these longer-term requirements?
Environmental ambitions
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges our global communities face, requiring a
