Placemaking for a Modern World
We design at every scale and at every stage in the process of placemaking, from visioning to briefing, design, delivery and operation. The places we create are distinct; social, natural, useful and beautiful – a reflection of humanity.
The practice has grown to over 1,200 people operating from a collaborative network of global studios, all creative hubs connected to the cities and regions they serve.
Healthcare is a key area of focus for the practice, and we have designed award winning places for healing and wellbeing across the world.
Healthcare buildings are the places where many of us will experience life’s most profound events and yet they are also complex technological facilities which have to operate efficiently.
Our designs pay close attention to clinical effectiveness and efficiency but they always prioritise people –patients, their visitors and the staff who care for them.
Humane
Irrespective of size, our projects are always designed around the needs of the individual. They create a caring environment which nurtures social contact and meets people’s needs during times of difficulty.
Rooted
In a world which is becoming increasingly generic we design projects which are specific and which create a real sense of place, firmly rooted in their time and their surroundings.
Legible
We achieve intuitive wayfinding through simple visual clues in site layouts, building forms and understandable hierarchies of circulation space.
Safe
We strive for the provision of healthcare buildings which facilitate safe clinical practice, with excellent patient observation and proximity of time sensitive activities in a clean and hygienic facility.
Selected Projects
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
The multi award winning BBC People’s Choice Building of the Decade is ‘a hospital without precedent’ using colour, light and views for therapeutic benefit. Three fingers of clinical space radiate from the atrium concourse, alternating with gardens, intertwining buildings and landscape to aid wellbeing and recovery and create a striking new landmark for the city.
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BDP’s willingness to listen to the views of our patients, families and our staff has been vital in turning this vision into a reality.”
Alder
Brunel Building, Southmead Hospital
Location Bristol, UK
Client Carillion for North Bristol NHS Trust Cost £430m Completion Mar 2014 Phase I, Jul 2016 Phase II
A BREEAM Excellent healthcare facility designed around a central, top-lit grand public concourse which simplifies access to medical wards and departments. Naturally ventilated inpatient rooms are organised around a series of landscaped courtyards separate from the core clinical facilities, creating a positive, noninstitutional environment.
Southmead Hospital merits a stop on the grand tour of the world’s notable hospital facilities, along with Rikshospitalet in Oslo and the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands.”Ken Schwarz Architectural advisor to North Bristol NHS Trust
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Cancer Centre
Location London, UK
Client John Sisk & Son Ltd for Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Cost £100m Completion 2023
The design brief for this world-renowned centre for paediatric care and research was created in partnership with staff, patients and families. A welcoming, active frontage responds to the domestic scale of its context and the ‘lily pad’ winter gardens enhance the inpatient experience, offering views from every bedroom window.
Teaching, Trauma and Tertiary Care Centre (3Ts)
Location Brighton, UK
Client Laing O’Rourke for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
Cost £480m Completion 2020
A major re-development of the Royal Sussex County Hospital creating two new state-ofthe-art hospital buildings which modernise elderly care, general medicine, HIV and clinical infection wards and establish the hospital as the major trauma centre for the region. The new building will include 361 beds, a helipad and parking underground.
Victoria Hospital
Location Fife, UK
Client Balfour Beatty for NHS Fife Cost £100m Completion 2012
A 500 bed extension brings together three hospitals under one roof, including a specialist women’s and children’s department. The waveform public facade and a strategic use of colour and transparency around public areas avoids an institutional feel and creates a new landscaped frontage with segregated access for emergency, services and visitors.
An ‘ideal hospital’ concept for this awardwinning PFI healthcare campus was developed through intensive consultation with patients, visitors, staff and the Trust’s clinical review groups. The findings enabled the design of a compact hospital with distinct, efficient realms for public, patients, staff and services.
A new 165,000m² children’s hospital and associated Children’s Research and Innovation Centre, facilitating the specialist and complex care of young people with serious illnesses from all over Ireland. The project brings together three existing children’s hospitals on one campus with St James’s Hospital, delivering a planned maternity hospital,384 in-patient beds, new hybrid theatres, an emergency department and urgent care facilities.
Børneriget Women’s and Children’s Hospital
This international design competition provides a modern and innovative women’s and children’s hospital in Copenhagen. Fusing medical efficiency and treatment through play, we collaborated with Gottlieb Paludan Architects to create a place where patients, relatives and employees would feel at home.
This new model of healthcare uses universal rooms which allow operational flexibility and blurring of departmental boundaries to respond to changing demand. Designed to BIM Level 2, it maximises the use of digital technology through the supply chain to enable programme efficiencies, offer improved health and safety and maximise quality control.
Clatterbridge Cancer Centre
Location Liverpool, UK Client Laing O’Rourke for the Clatterbridge Cancer Trust Cost £118m Completion 2020
This new design for one of the UK’s leading cancer centres has a crystalline facade, dramatic light filled atrium, landscaped wintergarden and external terraces offering panoramic views across the city and providing a high quality patient focused environment.
The Prime Minister’s Better Public Building creates an iconic ‘children’s ark’, a sustainable community built around user needs, the concept of the family and Brighton’s nautical spirit. Furniture and windows are child-scaled and all bedrooms have sea views, with the central atrium uniting all levels, delivering natural light and acting as a social hub.
Waterfall House, Birmingham Children’s Hospital
Location
Birmingham, UK Client Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust Cost £35m Completion 2018
Home to the UK’s first pioneering Rare Diseases Centre for Children, the hospital combines oncology inpatient and outpatient care and includes a teenage common room for cancer patients and a bright airy courtyard at ground floor. The exterior takes inspiration from the Birmingham canals, with the striking facade coloured to resemble cascading water.
Heatherwood Hospital
Location Ascot, UK
Client Kier for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust Cost £98m
Completion 2021
The redevelopment of Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, designed to treat 168,000 patients a year. A new four storey hospital offering 48 inpatient beds, six operating theatres, open plan workspace and an imaging and endoscopy unit, all centred around a double height space and courtyard.
Selected Awards
BDP has won over 1,000 awards for design quality – a selection of our healthcare awards is listed below.
RIBA National Award
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool
RIBA Regional Award
• Brunel Building, Southmead Hospital, Bristol (RIBA South West Client of the Year for North Bristol NHS Trust)
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Building of the Year and Sustainability Award)
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (RIBA Regional Client of the Year Award)
Civic Trust Award
• Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton
Civic Trust Commendation
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool
Prime Minister’s Award for Better Public Building
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool
• Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton
Building Better Healthcare Award
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Best Acute Hospital Development and Best Design Concept)
• National Children’s Hospital, Dublin (Best use of BIM)
European Healthcare Design Award
• Waterfall House, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Birmingham (Highly Commended)
• Brunel Building, Southmead Hospital, Bristol
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool
RICS National Award
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Winner Community Benefit)
RICS Regional Award
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (Design and Innovation Winner and Project of the Year)
Design and Health International Academy Award
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (Highly Commended)
BBC People’s Choice Award Building of the Decade
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Insider Property North West Awards)
AJ100 Building of the Year Award
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (finalist)
Mixology Award
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Public Sector Interiors Project of the Year)
• Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton (Public Sector Interiors Project of the Year)
Healthcare Estates IHEEM Award
• Brunel Building, Southmead Hospital, Bristol (New Build of the Year)
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (New Build of the Year)
Civic Voice Design Award
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Overall Winner and New Build Category Winner)
Offsite Award
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Public Sector Project of the Year)
Bristol Civic Society Design Award
• Brunel Building, Southmead Hospital, Bristol Manchester Society of Architects Design Award
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool (Commendation)
Constructing Excellence West Midlands Award
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (Project of the Year)
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Winner of 19 design awardsAndrew Smith
Principal, Sheffield Head of Healthcare andrew.smith@bdp.com
Photography: Nick Caville, David Barbour, Hufton+Crow, Paul Crudge, Paul Karalius
Benedict Zucchi Principal, London benedict.zucchi@bdp.com
Nick Fairham Principal, Bristol nick.fairham@bdp.com
Ged Couser Principal, Manchester ged.couser@bdp.com
Cover: Waterfall House bdp.com
Key: Architecture (Ar), Acoustics (Ac), Building Services Engineering (BSE), Civil and Structural Engineering (C&S), Design Management (DM), Graphic Design (GD), Inclusive Design (InD), Interior Design (ID), Landscape Architecture (La), Lighting (Li), Masterplanning (Ma), Planning (Pl), Sustainability (Su), Urban Design (UD)
Andrew Smith Head of HealthcareHospitals need to be much more than machines for treating, they need to be real places of healing, a synthesis of patient focused care and patient centred design, which save lives and help make life more worth living for everyone they touch.”
We are architects, engineers, designers and urbanists