Laura Carrara-Cagni and Edward Williams, the founding directors of architectural practice, Cagni Williams, discuss the thinking and architectural / design expertise that have combined to create what is said to be one of Europe’s most advanced hospitals, in Smethwick near Birmingham, explaining how the ‘vision’ for the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital was turned into reality.
The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) in Smethwick in the West Midlands stands as a testament to the transformative power of architecture, not only as a healthcare facility, but as a revitalising force within its community. As architects, HKS, Cagni Williams, and Sonnemann Toon, began this journey a decade ago, stepping onto a site that had seen better days — a closed Unipart warehouse stood on the site of one of the first GKN car part factories. Surrounded by a neighbourhood facing economic hardships, declining urban quality, and some of the UK's poorest health outcomes, MMUH was designed to offer more than clinical services; it was conceived as a modern hub to foster health, community, and regeneration in Sandwell, West Birmingham.
Today, MMUH is one of Europe's most advanced hospitals, pioneering innovative design, digital technologies, and green spaces. This flagship project, part of the UK's New Hospital Programme (NHP), sets a new standard for clinical healthcare design, as well as being a community regeneration catalyst. The hospital provides emergency department, maternity, children's, and adult acute inpatient services in an environment that is purpose-built for clinical teams to work together.
The building is a large area of accommodation, with approximately 80,000 m2 of clinical space, and 50,000 m2 of associated parking, built on a 16.7 acre site. Analysis of the brief produced a natural stacking of functions, with wards at the top, clinical areas in the middle, and the car park at the bottom, a unique and efficient arrangement for a building of this type. A clear and logical stacking of floors and functions maximises usable floor area, provides direct patterns of use, achieves desired clinical adjacencies internally, and satisfies maximum clinical travel distance requirements. By breaking down the functions into separate but related parts, with significant set-backs at levels 2 and 5, we reduced the scale and massing of the building so that a suitable human scale is achieved.
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