The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH), designed by HKS, Cagni Williams, and Sonnemann Toon Architects, is complete, providing a new ‘state-of-the-art’ acute hospital for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.
After a decade of close collaboration with clients and co-consultants, the architects, main contractor, Balfour Beatty, and a team including MEP consultants, Hulley & Kirkwood, structural engineers, Curtins, fire consultants, OFR Consultants, acoustic consultant, Aecom, town planning consultant, Turley, accessibility and inclusion specialist, Edna Jacobson/About Access, an landscape consultant, Grant Associates, have brought the new, ‘future-facing facility’ from conception and clinical engagement through to completion.
The architects say the ‘flagship project’, part of the New Hospital Programme, ‘sets a new standard for clinical healthcare design’, is one of Europe’s most advanced hospitals, and ‘a community regeneration catalyst in an area with high levels of deprivation’.
HKS said: “Bringing acute and emergency care from two separate hospitals into one centralised hub, MMUH is designed to support operational efficiency and technological innovation, while enhancing the patient and staff experience. Featuring surrounding green space, a central Winter Garden, and accessible roof terrace, MMUH delivers a new model of care that encourages patient mobility, independence, and wellbeing.”
The 11-storey, 84,000 m2 hospital provides both a purpose-built Emergency Department with imaging and diagnostic services, and a dedicated children’s Emergency Department and assessment unit. There are also 13 operating theatres for emergency, planned, and maternity surgery, a midwife-led birthing unit and delivery suite, two maternity wards and antenatal services, a neonatal unit, same day emergency care for adults, and a regional sickle cell and thalassaemia centre.
The efficient spatial layout centres around the ‘hot block’ clinical facilities, arranged around six internal courtyards. Less heavily serviced ward accommodation is arranged above the ‘hot block’, with two levels of car parking below. MMUH’s Winter Garden covers five floors across the building’s east-facing side, with its ETFE roof offering ‘a highly transparent, lightweight, and sustainable façade’, bringing natural light into the heart of the building, while offering impressive views out over the immediate neighbouring communities, Birmingham, and the surrounding countryside.
Individual patient rooms and wards are designed to optimise natural daylight and
views. The hospital provides over 700 new beds, with 50% of inpatients to be cared for in single en suite rooms. Individual patient rooms and bays are designed to promote patient safety and ease of visibility for staff, with single occupancy rooms allowing easy
adjustment to accommodate additional levels of isolation if required. Logistics, wayfinding, and patient flow are also central to the hospital design. The interior has a clear design language, centred around easy-to-navigate orange cores, with separate circulation routes for patients, staff and visitors.
