ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION ARTICLES

HLM Architects’ Neil Orpwood reflects on insights from the DiMH 2024 Conference, and a session exploring the balance between local and specialist services.

Maria Assirelli director and Mental Health & Social Value lead at Floyd Slaski Architects, and her colleague, Associate, Stefana Gradinariu, say ‘inclusive design’ is about ‘crafting spaces that cater to the diverse needs of all individuals, ensuring they can reach their full potential’. Here they set out the fundamentals in reaching this goal on healthcare projects, discussing a recent project at Ashford Hospital in Middlesex that involved converting a former bariatric ward into a ‘vibrant, neurodiversity-friendly’ outpatient setting for children and young people.

Andrew Arnold, an award-winning architect, and director at Gilling Dod Architects, explains how – as he puts it – designing ‘productive and appropriate environments’ for service-users with learning disabilities and/or Autism ASD, ‘requires a bit of a reset in terms of design approach’. He illustrates some of the key features and elements he believes are key when designing such spaces optimally with a look at the practice’s recent design of two modern inpatient LD facilities, one complete and the other under construction.

Alice Green, Associate Principal, Architecture and Urbanism, Mental Health, at Arcadis, argues that not enough thought has been given to the design and feel of what are known as ‘Places of Safety’ to date, with some patients starting what could be a lengthy inpatient stay in dreary, intimidating, and institutional admission and assessment spaces. She considers how an ‘ideal’ such environment might look through Arcadis’s own Halcyon ‘concept’ Place of Safety.

Stephen Watson, Principal, Architecture, at Hassell, discusses the thinking and feedback that informed the design of the 64-bedded Acute Mental Health Unit in Ipswich, Queensland, in Australia, which was Highly Commended in the Project of the Year – New Build International category at the 2024 Design in Mental Health Awards in June. The project delivers the first stage of an ambitious 15-year masterplan to redevelop and expand the Ipswich Hospital campus.

Kingsway Group, the anti-ligature door system specialist, has had a particularly busy last two years, launching a number of significant new products, and moving to a considerably larger 32,000 ft2 purpose-built office and production facility. A collaboration of industry partners including the company has meanwhile worked with the service-users, experts-by-experience, and architects, to lead the development of a new ‘co-production’ CAMHS bedroom. The Network’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, met up with head of Marketing, Mark Childs, to find out more.

Rachelle McDade, director of Healthcare Planning at Currie & Brown, Chris Roberts, associate director, David Morley Architects, and Evelien van Veen, a partner at Woonwerk Architecten, explore how – against the backdrop of a rise in mental ill health, ‘active design can have a significant positive impact on our communities, and offer the potential to help support our mental health crisis’.