An outstanding response to the client’s brief
Brunel Building, Southmead Hospital, Bristol
BDP for North Bristol NHS Trust
Contract value: £430m
GIA: 110,500 m²
Cost per m²: £3,891
This is an outstanding response to the client’s brief to deliver ‘an exceptionally sustainable healthcare facility’. Public areas are accessed through a lively central, top-lit street which separates in-patient rooms, organised around a series of landscaped courtyards, from the core clinical facilities. This diagram, together with careful design to facilitate daylight and views, creates a positive environment.
Site levels are exploited to create an entrance plaza at one end of the internal street, while locating the Emergency Department in a calm position at its opposite end, on a level below. Visible staircases in the street encourage mobility and give access to single rooms with views, many naturally ventilated. The clinical spine connects towards via discrete upper level bridges which preserve privacy for patients. Prefabrication helped streamline construction; unitised facades incorporating fixed glazing were used, plus louvred panels and reconstituted stone with local pennant rubble to plinths. Sustainability was a priority: energy use is less than 50% of the previous hospital. The Brunel Building is an exemplar hospital; it demonstrates that a strong brief, a visionary client and a talented design team can achieve excellence even when required to do so via the Private Finance Initiative.
RIBA South West Client of the Year sponsored by Tobermore
See the other winners in the RIBA regional awards - South West