Design development update
Tuesday 12 October 2010
The architectural team has developed a unique architectural design for the new children’s hospital based on input from children, their families, staff from the children’s hospitals and best international practice for paediatric care.
The design proposals are based on twin objectives of primarily creating an internal environment that will enhance the care, treatment and experience of children and families, and supporting staff at the hospital, and creating a memorable and appropriate overall building design that integrates with the surrounding medical campus and immediate neighbourhood, while also serving as a new icon on the city skyline.
This design philosophy is driven by the ethos that “children are different from adults and have special needs”. We have placed children and children’s needs at the core of our approach and we have the best interests of the child as our underpinning principle of our design. We consider this is a defining element of what is central to paediatric hospital design.
We have developed a layered approach to the design that provides the framework for environments especially driven by the needs and desires of the children and their families who will use them:
- Functional zones
- Sleepover
- Therapy park
- Treatment
- Service
The proposed design also incorporates state-of-the-art technical systems, and an approach to sustainability, not just as a single issue of low-energy targets but with a wider ambition of providing the best possible solution today that supports the efficient, effective and successful provision of children’s hospital services over the whole lifetime of the building.