Evergreen Mental Health Ward

Client

Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

Location

St Pancras, London

Value

500k

Quattro’s talented health team, specialising in sustainable healthcare architecture, took on the challenge of turning a series of existing 4-person bed bay wards, and smaller supporting rooms, into a series of mental health consulting rooms.

We split the large bed bay wards into smaller consulting rooms, creating 14 support rooms in total, up from the original 6 bays – an impressive 133% increase in mental healthcare spaces.

The Challenge

The brief required Quattro’s healthcare architects was to perform a complete refurbishment of the entire ward to make it user-friendly and to create a fresh and vibrant environment to encourage open conversations on mental health. As specialists in mental health architecture, we were the architects of choice. The scope of works included the need to create additional user and clinical support rooms within the existing footprint of the ward.

We designed the rooms to meet anti–ligature requirements, enabling safe use for the service users; this is a key element to mental health design architecture and wider healthcare architecture. As such, our health team placed careful consideration into the specification of materials, overall ward and individual room layouts as well as the feel of the new suites. We placed particular emphasis on aesthetics to make the unit user-friendly and less clinical than a standard hospital department.

Working with an existing building, and all the constraints this can place on the design, it can often be difficult to achieve the required room sizes (as per regulations, HTMs, HBNs etc) and capacity requirements and find the correct acoustic balance within a budget. Quattro’s proposal for the Evergreen Ward refurbishment was successful in meeting these requirements.

Our Solution

We opened up the waiting areas to create a light and welcoming environment, with a newly designed staff office and reception looking into the space. This innovative design feature makes it easier for service users to know where they need to refer to whilst being able to relax in a safe environment. It is especially important for architects specialising in healthcare to take these elements into consideration and provide a safe and inviting space where people are comfortable to use.

We split the large bed bay wards into smaller consulting rooms, creating 14 support rooms in total, up from the original 6 bays – an impressive 133% increase in mental healthcare spaces! The addition of staff spaces towards the rear of the unit, separated from the public spaces, included a staff kitchenette and toilet facilities designed in collaboration with the Trust. We feel that it is important to liaise and collaborate with our clients on a number of design elements, to ensure their requirements are fully understood, considered and delivered. It is our collaborative approach which enables us to help create a better working environment and better facilities for service users.

To learn more about our experience in mental health architecture, click here.