New multi-level facility to replace ‘dormitory'

Robin Graham, BA(Hons), M.Arch, ADPPA, ARB, an associate director at Gilling Dod Architects, describes the practice’s design of Park House – a new inpatient mental health facility at North Manchester General Hospital that will replace one of the largest remaining dormitory-based such units in the UK. The new hospital will also be one of the first multi-level mental health units with roof gardens in the north of England.

Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) operates the Park House mental health unit at North Manchester General Hospital. It is one of the largest remaining dormitory-based inpatient units in the UK, and features many aspects which don’t reflect current best practice or compliance. Two of the wards incorporate over 20 beds, and all have shared bathrooms. The Trust has been working tirelessly since 2017 to progress plans for its replacement. Gilling Dod Architects was appointed in late 2019 to design the new hospital, which will be located nearby on the southern end of the wider hospital site. The rest of the design team appointments followed in 2020, followed by the selection of the main contractor, IHP, in late summer 2020. 

The new hospital will be one of the first multi-level mental health units with roof gardens in the north of England, and one of the first of a series of a new generation of Net Zero carbon hospitals being built nationally. It forms part of a wider national dormitory eradication programme.