It was my first full time job and I didn’t know what to expect.’.
Our early work with Circle Reading Hospital provided us with excellent foundations: for that project we conducted extensive research into the use dynamics of a hospital, optimising the layout to deliver a hospital with a design that allowed a significantly improved experience for both staff and patients.. Our intention was to develop a set of standard processes and techniques that we would apply to all of our healthcare design projects, while allowing for the specific brief for each facility.Over the years, we have continually refined and improved these common elements to improve the efficiency of production of design information and the quality of the end product,.
while also delivering certainty of cost and programme.. We brought all of this learning to Birmingham.As at Reading, our primary focus was on the quality of the user experience for patients and staff, as well as the efficiency and usability of the building..In 2012 we won the Best Patient Experience Award for Circle Reading at the Building Better Healthcare awards.. Hospital Design for flexibility and change.
We also worked hard to make sure that the design of the hospital was flexible and adaptable.One recurring issue with hospitals is that the technology they house develops at pace and, as we have seen this year, the demands hospitals face can change very quickly.
Both of these mean that traditional approaches to hospital design and construction come with obsolescence as standard.. Our intelligent design, on the other hand, had future-proofing and flexibility built in.
We had an early opportunity to prove the value of this, when Circle Health decided to expand vertically and double the size of the hospital during the construction phase.We don’t want to be disrupted by big tech, caught out like the music industry was by iTunes….
Architects are important, but haven’t always been very good at making it obvious how important we are, and why.Over the last decades, the profession has been fragmented and whittled away – losing influence and impact and getting tied up in bureaucratic systems and approaches that have more to do with easing procurement and dispersing risk than with getting the best results for clients.. We believe that the role of the architect is – or should be – pivotal to the success of built environment projects.
That’s what the job is – or should be – and architects should be allowed to do their job to the best of their abilities.We shouldn’t be packaged up and commoditised.