BDP joins our hospital programme discussion forum this month

Image: Dominic Hook - courtesy of BDP

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Dominic Hook, architect director in the London studio of BDP, who specialises in healthcare and education projects will be contributing to our discussion event this week at Barts North Wing in Smithfield, City of London.

Dominic was the design team leader on the multi award-winning 60,000m2 Alder Hey Children’s Health Park in Liverpool and has been the co-design lead on BDP's 165,000m2 New Children’s Hospital in Dublin. The project is the largest, most complex and significant capital investment project ever undertaken in healthcare in Ireland.

Dominic is also currently the project director of the new Oak Cancer Centre for the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, South London. The building is a new outpatient facility and has been funded by charitable donations. It contains a new day care unit principally composed of 63 chemotherapy infusion bays which are arrayed in a sweeping crescent facing a new richly landscaped garden.

The provision of areas where staff and patients can interact with the healing qualities of nature is vital to the design, according to BDP which states that 'this creates a contemporary environment and a peaceful atmosphere with easy access to natural daylight, views, and fresh air.'

Located within the heart of the facility is a floor for dry lab research. The project has strong links with the adjacent Institute of Cancer Research headquarters and sits in the centre of the London Cancer Hub masterplan.

BDP says:

'Using the very latest technology, the new Charles Wolfson Rapid Diagnostic Centre and the Kuok Research Centre will provide spaces for world class scientific research and development, which will advance lifesaving treatments and enable earlier, faster diagnosis for more people, enhancing outcomes. 

'It also brings together more than 400 scientists and researchers into a space designed specifically to encourage collaboration at the very heart of the building. The design deliberately embraces the visibility and transparency of this vital work to provide a reassuring presence and real sense of progress and advancement for those being treated.'

Image below: Alder Hey Children's Hospital, courtesy of BDP.