Study tours

BDP, in collaboration with Laing O’Rourke, has designed and delivered a major addition to the Royal Sussex County Hospital site in Brighton’s Kemptown conservation area. The £480 million Teaching, Trauma and Tertiary Care Centre (3Ts), now known as the Louisa Martindale Building, constitutes the first of three phases in the redevelopment of the southern half of the campus. The development will double the healthcare accommodation to 361 beds, (75 per cent single, en-suite rooms), while also providing a new HQ, university teaching/research facilities, 390 basement parking spaces, and a central facilities management hub and energy centre. 

The building’s therapeutic environment is demonstrated most vividly by its ward concept. The three ward ‘fingers’ were sized and angled to meet the brief, which called for sea views from every bedroom. Bedrooms on the inward-facing facades have angled bay windows which direct the view from the patient bed towards the sea, while minimising overlooking. Gardens and terraces are set between the fingers, providing patients and staff with attractive views and sheltered places to enjoy the outdoors. 

Use of modular and off-site construction anticipated the New Hospital Programme drive for standardisation, reducing build costs without compromising on design quality or the ability to respond to the sensitive site context. Floors, columns, facades, bathrooms, service risers and horizontal distribution were all pre-fabricated, improving site safety, construction quality and installation times.

Alongside the award-winning Louisa Martindale Building, the tour to Brighton incorporates a visit to The Royal Pavilion and Gardens in the centre of the city, an exotic palace with a colourful history. Built as a seaside pleasure palace for King George IV, this historic house mixes Regency grandeur with the lavish visual architectural styles of India and China.

The Royal Pavilion (also known as the Brighton Pavilion) and surrounding gardens is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, who became the Prince Regent in 1811, and King George IV in 1820. It is built in the Indo-Saracenic style prevalent in India for most of the 19th century. The current appearance, with its domes and minarets, is the work of the architect John Nash, who extended the building starting in 1815. George IV's successors William IV and Victoria also used the Pavilion, but Queen Victoria decided that Osborne House should be the royal seaside retreat, and the Pavilion was sold to the city of Brighton in 1850.

During the visit, delegates will also get the opportunity to experience COLOUR, A Chromatic Promenade through the Royal Pavilion. Delegates will be able to step back into George IV’s era, when colour wasn’t just seen—it was felt. Wander through rooms where rich, diverse shades create a full sensory immersion, blending light, sound, and texture. From bold and glossy to mindful and demure, delegates will enjoy a fascinating chromatic journey through the Pavilion.

Highgate East is a new 78-bed mental health inpatient facility for the North London NHS Foundation Trust. Designed by Ryder Architecture, the facility includes adult acute and older adult wards with therapy, support and administration space. The restricted available area, adjacent to the Grade II listed Jenner building, posed town planning and construction logistics challenges. These were overcome though consultation with the local authority and design review panel and development of quality design detail that took references from the site. 

The aspiration for the building design was to destigmatise mental health by creating an overlap between the Trust services and publicly accessible zones. Active frontages are incorporated with glazed, welcoming facades to a café in the reception area, with office accommodation facing Dartmouth Park Hill and the main thoroughfare through the Whittington Hospital. All service user areas are flooded with light and have views out to help orientation. Secure ‘sky gardens’ have give access to fresh air and a connection with nature. 

The inpatient wards have been designed with clusters of bedrooms to form houses that enable service user support through alignment with a more domestic scale environment. They are supported with services to enable local control in terms of temperature and isolation through services zoning. 

Light and airy spaces that support the needs of the individual and connection to nature and the community were key drivers, achieved in the award winning design.

The Lowther Road Integrated Community Mental Health Centre (ICMHC), designed by Ryder Architecture is a state-of-the-art outpatient facility developed by the former Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, now North London NHS Foundation Trust. This new-build project replaces an outdated 1980s structure with a flexible and sustainable healthcare facility designed to enhance the delivery of mental health services. 

The strategic vision of the project was to create an integrated, patient-centred environment that consolidates borough-wide mental health services while providing an accessible, welcoming space for service users, staff and the community. The design focuses on breaking down stigmas associated with mental health facilities by incorporating open, communal areas, ample natural light and green spaces.

Key elements include dedicated outpatient consultation and treatment rooms, flexible workspace for healthcare professionals and community-focused facilities such as a café, meeting spaces and collaboration zones. 

The rationale behind the design solution was to develop a facility that supports holistic, multidisciplinary care, allowing patients to access a variety of services in a single location, close to home. The new centre prioritises sustainability, incorporating energy-efficient systems, green roofs and a pocket park to enhance urban integration. Its architectural form respects the surrounding residential and historic context while providing a distinctive identity that promotes wellness, accessibility, and operational efficiency.

Maggie’s Royal Free brings the charity’s expert care and support for people with cancer to north London, complementing Maggie’s in west London, at Barts, and at the Royal Marsden in south London.

The 454 sqm centre is part of Maggie’s visionary mission to bring world-class architecture and interior design to cancer support in the UK. Designed by Studio Libeskind, the design of the centre draws visitors in with an approachable and welcoming timber form. The exterior’s curves evoke a calm and peaceful interior space that offers visitors an inviting, private, and light-filled environment.

The building is clad in weathered timber panels that expand outwards as it rises. Double and triple-height glazing at the entry cut across the form, ushering in light to the interiors. An elevated garden at roof level creates a serene and private enclosure for visitors.

Operable skylights flood the core stairs and central circulation area with light and allow for fresh air circulation. Spaces flow freely from one programme area to the next, enabling moments of quiet and repose, and encouraging dialogue and socialisation with others. Both form and materiality embody a nurturing quality – one that provides a sense of calm and relief as visitors cross the centre’s threshold.

Designed by BDP with OCMA and commissioned by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, the new 130,000 sqm children’s hospital will be heralded as a world-class facility for children and young people from all over Ireland, who have complicated and serious illnesses and are in need of specialist and complex care. Constructed by BAM, it is the largest, most significant capital investment project ever undertaken in healthcare in Ireland, bringing together three existing children’s hospitals, tri-located on one campus with St James’ Hospital and a planned maternity hospital.

The new children’s hospital, due to complete this year, provides 384 inpatient beds, including 62 critical care beds, as well as overnight accommodation for families. It will provide treatment for a projected 28,258 inpatients and 223,355 outpatients per annum. The hospital includes 23 theatre suites (including three hybrid theatres to facilitate access to imaging during surgery), an emergency department, extensive outpatient facilities as well as medical school teaching, research and conference spaces.

At the heart of the design is an oval pavilion, set within one of Europe’s largest roof gardens that give the hospital an instantly recognisable and friendly identity. The introduction of the ‘floating garden’ halfway up the building elevates the importance of nature and the therapeutic environment, making it a central part of the architecture’s character. With open views towards Kilmainham and the Phoenix Park beyond, this establishes a new landscape and architectural axis that grounds the new building in its context. 

Dublin Simon Community supports people to exit homelessness, access and retain homes, and rebuild lives by delivering housing, health and wellbeing services. Dublin Simon approached O’Connell Mahon Architects (OCMA) to consider the feasibility of accommodating a significant expansion of its facilities and services offered at its site at Usher’s Island, which sits along Dublin’s historic quays. 

OCMA worked closely with Dublin Simon’s property and service provider teams to determine the key strategic goals for the development – to provide flexible multifunctional spaces that support an interdisciplinary team approach to treatment and residential care. The ensuing brief led to the design of a 100-bedroom facility spread over six floors with accompanying living and treatment facilities, dining room and kitchen, gymnasium and a range of training and administration offices, integrated into a coherent layout. 

The five-storey over partial-basement brick-clad building establishes a new landmark gateway on the western approach to the city of Dublin along the River Liffey. It provides a high-quality urban book end to the last city block before Guinness’s St. James Gate, presenting a strong west-facing elevation to Heuston Station and the Phoenix Park beyond. 

The building reimagines the materiality and proportions of Dublin’s Georgian vernacular in a contemporary form and reflects the values of the Dublin Simon Community, proudly providing enduring quality care for the city’s most vulnerable citizens.

The London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE) is a state-of-the-art innovation hub for medical technology and healthcare engineering, where healthcare innovation and education come together on a hospital site to directly benefit patients. Embedded within St. Thomas’ hospital’s campus, LIHE, which is designed by HLM Architects, brings together King’s College London’s platform for supporting spinout businesses (including experts from the school of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, and practising clinicians at GSTT) with industry partners in one physical location to launch and support newly-formed enterprises at scale and at pace. Set amongst several grade I & II listed buildings, LIHE’s design approach and material selection were informed by the surrounding architecture, delivering a contemporary building that is strongly connected to its context.

The new Harold Moody Health Centre on Southwark’s Aylesbury Estate rehomes two local GP practices, providing a brand-new neighbourhood base for delivery of community health services.

Aylesbury Medical Centre (Nexus Health Group) and East Street Surgery began welcoming patients in February to their purpose-built and fully accessible premises Harold Moody Health Centre. Additional consulting rooms provide better facilities for staff, an improved experience for patients, and scope for diversifying and expanding services in the future. Alongside practice nurse and GP appointments, both practices will continue to offer patients access to a range of other health care professionals, for example pharmacists, physiotherapists, advanced nurse practitioners and mental health nurses.

As well as the two GP practices, community health services will be provided by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

The Trust will be providing speech and language therapy, health visiting, breastfeeding and midwifery services at the site. The Aylesbury neighbourhood nursing team and weight management nutrition and dietetic service are also based at the Harold Moody Health Centre.

This new health centre supports broader developments in the way general practice supports people, with a wider range of clinical and other expertise offered to patients, and the co-location of general practice and community health services also offering increased opportunities for the health and care system to work more closely together.’

This is a key ambition within our plans to develop neighbourhood models of working and build integrated neighbourhood teams across the Borough. The building was funded by Southwark Council as part of a wider redevelopment vision for the area and the early delivery of the health centre, along with a brand new public library (opened last year), reflects the council’s commitment to providing quality facilities for its communities.

Designed by Morris + Company, the centre is a horizontally-layered programme with the health centre at the ground, first and second floors, and a nursery at the top. The stepped form breaks down mass to create recesses acting as forecourts and transitional spaces. A large external terrace has been designed for early years use.

The centre was named after Dr Harold Moody following a public vote. Dr Moody came from Jamaica in 1904 to study medicine at King’s College, London. Facing racial prejudice, he was unable to work as a doctor and instead established his own GP practice in Peckham in 1913, where he lived and worked until his death in 1947.

Image credit: ©Andy Stagg for Morris+Company

Due to complete in May, the Children’s Day Treatment Centre is a five-storey building providing a day surgery facility for the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. Designed by ADP, it includes an admissions area; two general admission theatres; first- and second-stage recovery areas; a discharge facility; and staff and clinical support accommodation. Owing to a constrained site, modern methods of construction were used for panellised baguette cladding with a steel-framed solution. To avoid crossover between pre-op and post-op, a ‘one-way’ flow loop was designed, so patients travel into theatre at one end and out the other end to recovery. Integral to a child’s care journey, the artwork continues the hospital’s natural world design concept of theming different floors to a different setting. ‘Space’ is the theme used, chosen in collaboration with children and young people.