Health \ Unbuilt Invited Competition Entry for an 180-bed Acute Hospital, Antrim, Northern Ireland

Our team of RPP architects, Aecom and ourselves as design champions were selected  for a limited competition for this £50M project. The site is a field on the edge of an existing out-of-town campus style hospital. The brief asked for four 2-bed acute wards, wards for dementia patients, addiction, rehabilitation/recovery, a psychiatric intensive care ward and up to two 20 bed acute wards as a phase two. The brief had been written almost as a description of our courtyard based acute hospital design in Belfast completed in 2018 so we developed that thinking with each ward a courtyard garden. Bedrooms were organised for maximum views out and complete privacy. The ten courtyard gardens were accessed off two identical central courtyards divided from each other by the centre's cafe which was positioned to become the social hub of the entire building for staff visitors and patients alike. Only the administration extended to the first floor in the centre of the plan.