Death was chosen as a theme because despite the fact most of us will (statistically) die in hospitals, it is often poorly dealt within their buildings.  Eight of the ten shortlisted finalists used the brief, and their responses were extremely diverse and imaginative, from a vision of the future where memento mori will be cultivated from cells, to a cemetery for unknown citizens, to the winning project by Frank Trautmann (Bauhaus University, Weimar), a hospice for advanced progressively ill children in the Weimar.

Trautmann’s hospice integrated a public garden and kindergarten, to encourage interaction with the city’s other children. The judges noted that all three of the winners engaged with the interrelation of the community with the dying, and this particular project ‘burned with that humanity.’ Sponsors Brookfield awarded him the prize of £1250 and an invitation to return next year as a judge. The second prize went to Ewan Cooper (London Metropolitan) for his Fleet River Burial Ground and City Garden.  The third prize went to Hayley Moreton (Birmingham City) for her thought-provoking proposal that hospices could be developed in disused pubs.

Entries came from all around the globe and the shortlist included students from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Russia and the UK. The judging panel comprised of a wide range of skilled professionals: medical practitioners, architects, architectural tutors, the sponsor and the 2009 winner, Iseult O’Cleary. She said: ‘It was really interesting to be in that room this year and hear what was said – I was very impressed with how much the panel focused on the link between humanity and healthcare.’ Panelist Pamela Hibbs, Chairman of St Joseph’s Hospice, said: ‘It’s wonderful to see such creativity from young people – it’s amazing that they have the vision to see how it could be…there are so many starting points.’

All of the submissions including the winners are published on the Awards Website (http://www.afhawards.org). If you are interested in developing healthcare work at your place of study or work please contact AfH Executive and event organiser Jaime Bishop of Fleet Architects by telephone: 020 7324 2675 or email: jaimeb@fleetarchitects.co.uk

Low Carbon, Healthy Living
Tuesday 14th September 2010, 3-6pm
Downing College, University of Cambridge

Speakers:

• Sonia Roschnik: Operational Director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit
• Jon Bootland: Director of the Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF)
• Jonathan Porritt CBE: Leading writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development.

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AfH would like to thank all those who submitted projects to the 2010 competition which has been the most successful and most taxing to judge since the competitions inception in 2007.

The short listed students are:

• Andrew Thompson KTH Arkitekturskolan, Sweden
• Lauren Dutton Royal College of Art, London
• Tim Thikaj The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture
• Frank Trautmann Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany
• Ewan Cooper London Metropolitan University
• Steven Baumann Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
• Svetlana Nesterushkina Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC)
• Hayley Moreton Birmingham City University
• Sayan Skandarajah and Niall Patterson University of Edinburgh
• Jan Giehler Technical University of Dresden

For more information on both the 2010 Awards and the short listed student please visit: http://www.afhawards.org

Held on Tuesday 20 April 2010 at The Reform Club, 104 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5EW.

Chair: to be announced

Speakers For: to be announced

Speakers Against: to be announced

Review of debate: not currently available

Architects for Health invite you to attend the awards ceremony of the 2009 Student Design Award at the RIBA in London. All Students and Non-Members Welcomed – Refreshments provided.

Winner: tba

Second Place: tba

Third Place: tba

The 2009 AfH Student Design Award Judging Panel John Cooper (Chair)
John studied architecture at Cambridge University from 1969-1972 and 75-77 and in his early career taught on a part time basis at the universities of East London, Brookes Oxford and De Montfort, Leicester. He formed Avanti Architects with four colleagues in 1982. After twenty years at Avanti, John joined Anschen and Allen. In seven years John directed twelve major projects. These span the full range of health care from complex tertiary hospitals for oncology, paediatrics and maternity to innovative community facilities. He has completed designs for new types of hospitals which have 100% single rooms, migrating many of their ambulatory services into the community. He has worked in Ireland, Norway, and Australia and collaborated with his colleagues in the USA. John is the current Chair of Architects for Health. Dr Sam Everington
Sam is a GP in the East End of London’s Bromley by Bow Centre. The Centre is used by the government as a model for “healthy living centres” and NHS Lift premises. It was formally designated by Government as a ‘healthy living centre’ in 2000 and achieved Beacon Status in 2001. In 2003 it was designated by government as a national “children’s centre”. Sam is a qualified Barrister and a member of BMA and GMC Council. In 1999 he received an OBE for services to inner city primary care and in 2006, The International Award of Excellence in Health Care. He is a Director of Community Health Partnerships (NHS Lift) and an Ambassador for Social Enterprise (Cabinet Office) Dr Patrick Hutt
Patrick Hutt is a newly qualified GP who has written extensively on General Practice. He is author of Confronting an ill Society, a biography of David Widgery, a radical East End GP. At University College London he is currently researching the evidence for differing health centre configurations, motivated by the recent proposals for polyclinics. Other areas of interest include the Japanese Healthcare system, looking at the role primary care plays in this. He is Junior Editor of InnovAIT – the journal for GP trainees. He lives in and is from Hackney. Elaine Neish (2008 Winner)
Born in Aberdeenshire; qualified (Bacholeor of Architecture), Mackintosh School of Architecture Glasgow School of Art 2001. Took 4 years out working as an architectural assistant in practice working for Dunwoodie Architecture and Design, where the interest in design for Healthcare emerged. Qualified (B.Arch) University of Newcastle Upon Tyne 2008, Children’s Language and Speech Clinic won the Architects for Health Student Award 2008. Current projects include the redevelopment of South Tyneside District Hospital Accident and Emergency Services, whilst also undertaking Part 3 at University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Francesca Pont
Francesca is currently a Project Architect at Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture in London, where she has gained varied experience on a range of projects including a Community Centre in Newham, a Homeless Shelter in Southend and a Secondary School in Lewisham. Francesca graduated from London Metropolitan University in 2004 where she received her Diploma in Architecture. Following her diploma, she has maintained strong links with the university and is a currently co-tutor a Post-Graduate Unit in the Department of Architecture & Spatial Design. Paul Serkis (Brookfield – Sponsor)
Paul has over 20 years experience in the construction industry, having held senior positions in the delivery of construction projects together with SPV Director/Bid roles in PFI. He began his career at John Laing Construction as a sponsored undergraduate completing his Quantity Surveying degree at LJMU. His learning and experience continued holding a number of commercial positions on a variety of projects including MOD, Health, Laboratories and Retail facilities. He became a member of the RICS in 1996 and completed a diploma in law in 1999. Paul moved to Wates in 2001 to drive forward the PFI Education Business until joining Brookfield in 2005 to focus initially on closing Peterborough hospitals. Paul’s is Commercial Director- Infrastructure responsible for the PFI/Infrastructure business unit in both strategic positioning and bidding for new opportunities. Thomas Gardner
Thomas Gardner is currently project architect and key Sustainability Group member at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, following work for Urban Salon, Meadowcroft Griffin and Wilkinson Eyre. He has wide project experience from masterplanning to interior refurbishment, including leading the completion of Sunshine House, an RIBA award-winning Child Healthcare centre in Southwark. He is a studio teacher at Cambridge University, with studio briefs focused on integrating physical production with political life, and has previously won an RIBA East student award. He and his work have featured in journals including Building Design, the Architect’s Journal and the Guardian.

The Architects for Health
First Student Health Design Award
was sponsored by

Now in it’s 10th year, the The Building Better Healthcare Awards once again spotlighted world-class architecture, design, facilities and estates management. The Awards are open to building, improvement and design projects which demonstrate all-round excellence, the BBH Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals and teams working in either the public or private sectors. The 2008 winners where announced at a glittering awards ceremony on 13 November 2008 at The Brewery, London.

Patient Environment Class

Award for Best Interior Design
Winner: The Urology Centre Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital – Greenhill Jenner Architects

Award for Best External Space
Winner: The Friends of the Roof Garden – Great Ormond Street Hospital, Spacelab & Andy Sturgeon Garden Design
Highly commended: Cooper Partnership – Callington Road Hospital, Bristol
Highly commended: Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust – Fant Oast Garden, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit

Award for Best Use of Visual Art In Healthcare
Winner: lime – Integrated artwork for MAST LIFTCO, Manchester PCT LIFT schemes
Highly commended: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris – Sunshine House
Highly commended: CNWL NHS Foundation Trust – Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust Art Project

Products Class

Award for Best Healthcare Construction Product
Winner: The Britplas Safevent Window
Highly commended: Interserve Health – North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust Emergency Assessment Unit

Award for Best Interiors Product
Winner: Horne Engineering – Optitherm Thermostatic Tap
Highly commended: Nightingale Associates – Kings Fund Enhancing the Healing Environment

Award for Best Ecological Product
Winner: Forbo Nairn – Marmoleum

Estates and Facilities Management Class

Award for Best Facilities Management Service Strategy
Winner: South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Highly commended: Surrey and Borders NHS Foundation Trust – Surrey and Borders NHS Foundation Trust Estates Strategy
Highly commended: CNWL NHS FT – Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust Estates Department

Award for Best Environmental Strategy
Joint Winner: Camden Primary Care Trust – Caring for the Health of the Environment
Joint Winner: Great Ormond Street Hospital Environmental Strategy
Highly commended: Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Green Group

People Class

Award for Best Project Team
Winner: Essex Cardiothoracic Centre Project Team – Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Highly commended: The Thomas Cook Children’s Critical Care Centre Project Team at the Variety Club Children’s Hospital, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Highly commended: Building Better Health

Award for Design Champion of the Year
Winner: Sylvie Pearce – Building Better Health

Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to the Healthcare Environment
Winner: Derek Stow

Building Design Class

Award for Best Primary Care Design (projects with a value below £15m)
Winner: The Waldron Centre, Lewisham – Buschow Henley
Highly commended: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris – Sunshine House

Judges’ Special Award:
Winner: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris – Sunshine House

Judges Special Award for Primary Care Design
Winner: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners – Maggie’s Centre, London

Award for Best Community Care Design (projects with a value above £10m)
Winner: Grove Well Being Centre – Kennedy FitzGerald & Associates in association with Avanti Architects

Award for Best Residential Care Design
Winner: Cooper Cromar – Erskine Care Home, Glasgow

Award for Best Mental Health Design
Winner: David Morley Architects in association with Hall Black Douglas Architects – The Bluestone Unit, Craigavon Area Hospital
Highly commended: New Gartnavel Royal Hospital – Macmon Chartered Architects, Robertson, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Young and Gault Architects

Award for Best Sustainable Design
Winner: Househam Henderson Architects – Winthrop Hall
Highly commended: DKA – Frome Community Hospital

Award for Best International Design
Winner: Anshen + Allen – Intermountain Medical Center, Intermountain Healthcare
Highly commended: Murray O’Laoire/Brian O’Connell Associates – Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore, Ireland

Award for Best Hospital Design
Winner: Anshen + Allen – Northern Centre for Cancer Care and Renal Services Centre, The Freeman Hospital

Judges’ Special Award:
Winner: Queen Square, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery – Devereux Architects, Allies & Morrison & Tangram Architects
Highly commended: Anshen + Allen – The Bexley Wing, St James’s Institute of Oncology, St James’s University Hospital

Judged by leading experts in the field of architecture, design and build – and chaired by the special advisor for health at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) – the awards are well respected and considered the benchmark in industry best practice. Categories include best hospital design, best architectural product, best interior design and lifetime achievement award for services to the healthcare environment.

DAYDREAMING DURING A NIGHTMARE an oncology centre of tomorrow

The continually growing group of cancer-patients in the Netherlands is faced with a suboptimal level of oncological care. There’s a growing need for order and quality care. This care can improved by grouping the expertise in twenty to thirty oncology centres throughout the Netherlands, says Sjoerd Rodenhuis, chief medical executive of the Dutch Cancer Institute NKI-AVL and oncologist at the related Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam. Nowadays patients with a rare variety of cancer are treated at hospitals specialising in this kind of cancer. According to Rodenhuis the distinction between rare and common types of cancer should not be made. Each tumor is unique and thus should be treated as such.

This project ‘Daydreaming During A Nightmare’ is about an oncology centre placed close to the bustle of a public transport terminal in Breda, the Netherlands. Within this area people go about their usual, everyday business; catching a train, transferring to a bus, buying a newspaper and so on. By merging this everyday context with expert cancer treatment interaction emerges between two worlds. These worlds are confronted with each other and become aware of the other’s reality. The reality of the cancer patient gets a spot within everyday life, hereby breaking the taboo that shrouds cancer. People can talk more openly about the disease and possibly patients will be treated less awkward. Taking away part of the anxiety can motivate people to get a check-up early on when first symptoms surface. Being early improves chances of healing.

For this new, as yet unbuilt terminal area the city of Breda has created an urban development plan. This project tries to adhere to and respect this master plan as much as possible. Some changes are made to improve the actual design and area, most notably rounding the façade and marking the inner patch of grass as purposeful space.

Experience of the cancer patient is at the core of this design, resulting in an approach that works from the small (patient) towards the larger structure (complete design). This approach to architecture tries evade the dictating role of architectural legislation concerning such care centres. The oncology centre design is divided into scenarios: 1. Entrance, 2. Examination, 3. Chemotherapy, 4. Radiotherapy, 5. Policlinic, 6. Surgery, 7. Nursery. These scenarios are studied and designed independently, without context, at a small and personal scale. For each scenario ideas are developed for the intended experience. The designs for the scenarios take into account positive factors of Evidence Based Design, user centred design and wayfinding research. When designing at a larger scale these scenarios are taken into account at an early stage. The scenarios form the constructs of the larger body that is the programmatic grouping and resulting architectonic form.

The building at large consists of two main volumes; a central block surrounded by a ring. This block provides a strong point of entrance and recognition, while other functions reside in the ring and interact with the inner plaza and the life on the outside. The architectonic geometrical form seeks to provide order. It is this order that contrasts with the current state of Dutch cancer care and the lives of patients. And it is this new order that can fulfil a need of the patient.

The Architects for Health
First Student Health Design Award
was sponsored by

Children’s Speech and Language Clinic, with educational and research facilities, Forth Street Newcastle Upon Tyne

1.0 LINE OF ENQUIRY

Erving Goffman’s Stigma: – notes on the management of spoiled identity (1963) provides a formal analysis of the features of those who experience stigma and manage the impressions they present to each other in different settings.

Goffman writes that stigmatised people will find themselves in 3 possible kinds of places. Forbidden, out of bounds places where exposure means expulsion. There are civil places, where persons of the individual’s kind, when known to be of his kind, are treated as if they are not discredited. And back places where they need not conceal their stigma.

The 3 types of places stand juxtaposed with personal identity. The forbidden place offers anonymity, the civil a place where one can expect mutual blindess, and the back place he will be a familiar personality.

2.0 THEMATIC FRAMEWORK

The concepts that developed from Stigma, manifests itself in the planning of the buildings, and the spatial relationships created.

The 3 types of space offer differing emotional responses to those who may be ’stigmatised’.

In the clinic, the forbidden place will offer emotional comfort, offering the children spaces to hide out of view from lots of people, or with more manageable groups, this will be in the circulation zones. The civil places, will be about the children’s visibility in groups, this will happen outside and around the building, and within formal waiting areas. And the back place, will be the first and main interface with the child, the reception and the treatment suites.

Communication, place-making and other psychological and experiential effects evolved through the large and imposing façade to the North of the site. The opportunity to create an ever changing façade from day to night, and in differing weather conditions became important to unlocking the emotional journey of the site.

3.0 FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMME – BRIEF

The ability to communicate is central to all that we do; at work, at home and in our relationships with each other. In the UK, approximately 2.5 million people have a communication disorder of some kind and many of these will have difficulties accessing education, social or career opportunities.

According to AFASIC (Association for All Speech Impaired Children), 1 million children in the UK are affected by the hidden disability of speech, language and communication impairments.

And according to the Royal Collage of Speech and Language Therapists 5% of all children in the UK are entering schools with difficulties in speech and language.

Therefore the project seeks to establish a speech and language clinic for children, with an educational and research facility on site too. The primary objective of the clinic, is to improve the quality and provision of services, and to provide a benchmark facility which will empower children in their respective environments, encourage close relationships with nature, include positive distractions and avoid environmental stressors such as noise, unpleasant smells, having a positive impact on the education achievement and the health of a child.

The clinic will offer – assessment, both formal and informal, observation and discussion; intervention by other linked professionals (psychiatrists, audiologists, dentists); Individual or group therapy sessions; Parental advice; Parent/carer training; School visits; Spaces for play.

The types of spaces which are included in the clinic in particular are -

EXTERNALLY

• public square and separate green space is designed to improve the children’s development, encourage use by various groups, reflect the history of the site (the Town Wall remnants), and promote community pride
• courtyards within the building provide imperative closed safe zones for the children’s playground,
• external green areas act as natural gardens for pedagogic as well as aesthetic purposes.

INTERNALLY

• reception area is a small and familiar place, the receptionist becoming a friendly familiar face, on a first name basis, the building allows intellectual access, psychologically and navigationally
• variety of waiting areas, formal and informal
• formal waiting areas are small enough scale to not become anonymous in, but are large enough to feel that you blend in
• waiting areas and outdoor spaces should be paired as interaction and learning occurs in both environments, furnishings should be moveable and scaled for children of different age and needs
• play areas are places to be noisy/climb/hide, to imagine, to run freely inside and out/textures and smells are important
• circulation zone acts as an overspill for waiting, play and other public areas and to become a populated zone in itself, it also offers crevices and seating areas on smaller scales, resting and pausing spaces are generous, wait, play and assessment areas are easy read from the circulation zone
• assessment and treatment suites are designed for their specific needs, these are to be calm, with views to the outside world, reduced sensory overload.

The educational facility will include the school of education communication and language sciences (currently housed within campus at University of Newcastle), which will accommodate the teaching facilities specifically for the speech and language sciences degrees. This will provide all facilities including classrooms, lecture theatre, library, education resource centre, clinics, labs and a recording studio. The research facilities are to be the base of research carried out in the field of Child Language. The building will contain and support both the case and clinical based research projects.

4.0 SITE

The site is in Newcastle, and is an historically rich area of land to the East of the old Town Walls.

The proposition is to demolish the existing casino and derelict buildings, to provide the Children’s Speech and Language Clinic, with educational and research facilities. The site has obvious boundaries on all sides, to the North is the Railway line, to the West is the largest remnants of the Town Wall, to the South the natural typography slopes steeply down towards the Quayside, and to the East is Clavering Place and Hanover Street.

The imposition of the railway line to the north and the possible views to the south led to a parti-diagram of creating a barrier to the north of the site, to act as a buffer for noise and create a protective ‘arm’ in tandem with the Town walls. The Town walls become part of the enclosure for the children’s external play areas, adding texture, both historical and physical to their experience at the clinic.

The orientation of the site has great potential in the summer months for public use and proposing a mix of vistas, views, green space and a public square will greatly encourage city people to visit and utilise it, leading to a more populated development where interaction can be used to integrate the building with the community.

5.0 TECHNOLOGY

The technological issues that the project focus on, are in terms of structure and materiality, how the two relate between the two buildings. The educational and research facility are housed in their own block, which correlated in scale and massing to the surrounding context, and the clinic is a much smaller domestic scale building.

The materials for both buildings and the structural system types were to be the same in each building to be read as an architectural language together. The differentiation appears in the detailing of the two buildings.

The clinic has more exposure of the assemblage of the components of the building, almost showing the inquisitive mind of a child, how things are put together, to reveal the expression of the structure and the connections between materials. The education and research block is more finished in detail, with less expression of connections etc, as a more mature building than the clinic. Through this the block would appear to be established and adult, technologically advanced and more institutional in scale and finish. The clinic is more deconstructed, in plan, finish, scale and geometry.

The Architects for Health
First Student Health Design Award
was sponsored by