Hospitals play a key role in society’s life and should be thought as integral to city planning. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the UK’s reliance upon the hospital. While the healthcare sector is going through some major transformations and unprecedented investments, many hospital building plans have seen changes to reflect this new context we live in. Hospital builds, proposed, in progress and completed now have to hold a new prospective. What is the latest thinking in terms of patients’ care? What are the new hospitals being built across the capital? How can good quality design positively impact on the healthcare experience? These questions pose a need to look closely towards healthcare sector buildings and their roles within our future cities.

This Project Showcase presented by NLA looks at some of the key builds already responding to these pressing questions and follows several examples of how the hospital building can be designed and built, responding to the present and with a focus towards the future.

00:00   Welcome from Chair
             Barbara Chesi, Programme Director, NLA

Barbara introduces the topic and sets out the running order for the webinar, she states 'We believe now is a critical time for redefining the value of good design in the healthcare sector'.

01:06   Whipps Cross Master Plan
             Ruth French, Associate, Ryder Architecture

Ruth begins by outlining the vision for the project; 'provide a modern exemplar hospital but to establish an integrated health and wellbeing campus which includes new homes and local community facilitates'. The concept for this project is to build a 'hospital in a garden and a garden in a hospital' by drawing on the neighbouring Epping Forrest.

10:40   Zayed Centre
            Eleni Makri, Associate, Stanton Williams

Eleni starts by providing background on the type of research and treatment of rare diseases, she states that the building is about making connections, not only within the community inside but with the wider public as well. 

17:48   UK Institute for Dementia
             Ewan Graham, Healthcare Sector Lead, Hawkins/Brown

The project combined forces to create a new centre of excellence for neurological therapy. Ewan explains that the centre will house scientific research, clinical therapy and a headquarter for UK dementia institute. He pinpoints key challenges for shifting perspectives in healthcare, such as, approaching design from urban perspective and be generous with public realm.

26:37   Project Oriel
             Kate Edmondson, Senior Architect, Penoyre & Prasad

'Project Oriel brings together world-leading eye-care research and education under one roof'. Kate introduces the project's vision as an environment for innovation to flourish, inspiring improvements in people's sight by harnessing the collective power of people. She believes this core belief is at the heart of the project and takes everyone's needs into account.

34:53   Oak Cancer Centre
             Dominic Hook, Project Director, BDP

Dominic states that the challenge for this project is to develop a world-class 21st century clinical care and research centre for the Royal Marsden and try to make it make sense without having it compromised by short-term constraints of existing buildings and services challenges.

45:38   UCL's Institute of Immunity and Transplantation in Hampstead
             Hugo Dring, Associate Director, Buro Four

The aim of this project is to provide a world leading organisation in the heart of London to deliver groundbreaking research, ethical research advances, with a number of uses. To achieve this Hugo states that collaboration was at the heart of design.

55:42   Q&A
              Speakers above