Construction has commenced on an ‘energy-efficient’ Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) in Hereford, which will provide a calming and reassuring environment for diagnostic imaging and testing.
Designed by Architype and Medical Architecture for Wye Valley NHS Trust, and being built by Speller Metcalfe, the £18 million centre is part of a national initiative to boost NHS diagnostic capacity by providing such ‘CDCs’ in local communities countrywide.
Alongside their expertise in healthcare design, the design team members were selected for their knowledge and experience in designing to Passivhaus standards, which combine principles such as high thermal efficiency, airtightness, and mechanical heat recovery, to reduce carbon emissions and greatly improve building energy performance. On this project, these principles also ‘provided a robust framework to easily achieve the Trust’s other sustainability targets’ – including exceeding the NHS Net Zero Carbon Building Standard and achieving a BREEAM Excellent rating.
Effective spaces for staff and patients
Created in consultation with a wide range of NHS stakeholders, the building’s internal spaces have been designed ‘to meet the specific technical, and safety requirements of a cutting-edge diagnostic facility’. Spaces for MRI, CT, and X-ray imaging, which require protective shielding, and heavy, vibration-sensitive equipment, are on the ground floor, ensuring an efficient structural engineering solution, and enabling easy access for patients from the public waiting and reception area. Consultation rooms are on the first floor, alongside staff welfare facilities, where generous views and natural daylight create a positive environment for wellbeing. Rooms are arranged using standard templates, both for improved efficiency, and so the building can be easily (and cost-effectively) adapted to accommodate future changes to service requirements.
A double-height atrium directs visitors towards the entrance, with its bright, welcoming, reception and waiting space. The atrium has natural finishes and a large-scale artwork, which the architects say ‘creates an internal landmark which aids orientation on the ground and first floors’, supporting the use of simple and intuitive signage and wayfinding, removing unnecessary visual clutter, and enabling the interior to adopt a more familiar and less institutional character.
The building’s interior has been designed with a calming palette of materials and finishes to support positive patient experiences, with equal attention to details that create a high-quality workplace, to aid recruitment and retention of NHS staff.
Externally, a black standing-seam metal cladding has been chosen as the primary material for the elevations. Medical Architecture and Architype say this ‘provides a contemporary interpretation of the local industrial context, while creating a distinct identity which aids navigation to the site’.
As visitors approach the diagnostic centre, softer timber details become apparent within the outside canopy, and the window/door reveals. Vertical timber cladding elements beneath the canopy frame the main entrance, providing a clear destination. All materials have been selected for their longevity, and their ability to age well as part of a ‘holistic’ sustainability strategy.
Mark Barry, director at Architype, said: “It is very exciting to be constructing another public building and further improving services in our local city, following a three-year period innovation in the healthcare sector working alongside Medical Architecture.”
Mark Nugent, associate director at Medical Architecture, added: “This building reflects the collaborative approach of the client, contractor, and the design team members, who have all striven towards the shared ambition of a more sustainable development approach, which has the potential to reduce revenue costs, as well as carbon, across the whole NHS estate.”
