Architecture + Design Scotland

New South Glasgow Hospital

23 June 2010

Introduction

This report relates to design proposals for a Masterplan and new acute adult and children's hospitals, as part of the New South Glasgow Hospital complex in Govan, presented to a Design Review Panel on 21^st April 2010 in The Lighthouse, Glasgow.

Over the past three years A+DS have had some previous involvement with the project through the Healthcare Design Programme. A Design Assessment was carried out in February 2007, looking at the written briefing elements, a campus development plan and an early Public Sector Comparator Design, and concerns over the qualities of the Masterplan were expressed at that time. Following this assessment A+DS Enablers were made available to the project team. The enabler's involvement was limited in comparison to the scale of the project and their commission concluded in summer 2009.

A+DS Views

1          General

We welcome the proposals to review at this stage and thank the Project Team for their concise and clear presentation. The designs presented show considerable promise and represent a significant improvement on those reviewed three years ago. We are generally supportive of the direction the project is moving and commend the efforts that have been made by the designers in recent months. The Review Panel did however raise comments regarding certain elements of both the Masterplan and the current developing proposals for the building designs, which we feel require further consideration.  

2          Masterplan

2.1       The Wider Site & Future Development

We feel that the Masterplan has improved significantly since our initial Design Assessment, in terms of both its strategy and impact upon the local community. The concept of a hospital campus being structured as a piece of urban fabric, containing significant areas of public parkland, is supported. We also consider the introduction of the diagonal element into the rectilinear site structure to be a strong move with significant potential.  We encourage this concept to be developed with conviction to create a site wide pedestrian armature linking existing, new and future phases of development across the site, and establishing a direction for pedestrian links with future developments in adjacent areas.

The expansion strategy and masterplanning of the wider site requires to be carefully established within the local authority's development control system. A robust strategy for the coming decades should be described in order to ensure that future development in the hospital grounds builds upon and compliments the developing site vision. The parkland areas, in particular, must be protected against any subsequent pressures for expansion.  

2.2       Transport

We recognise the importance of providing dedicated transport infrastructure for the Clyde Fastlink, blue light and vehicular traffic. The separation of the main site access point and additional entrance for blue light traffic, to A&E, and private vehicles, to two of the multi-storey car parking areas, could allow transportation within the site to flow effectively and with minimal disruption. Further information is required, however, on how patients and visitors will arrive at the site and be clearly directed to the appropriate car park via the correct access point.  The distinct separation of routes to A+E and the main parking areas from routes to the arrival space and parking by the children's hospital means that the decision point for patients and visitors is outwith the site boundary.  The wayfinding strategy, both in terms of landscape design and signage, therefore, needs to be both clear and intuitive to prevent additional stress being caused by using the wrong site entrance.

2.3       Arrival Space

The refinement of the arrival space as part of the distinct diagonal route, linking the two main parkland areas, appears to work well organisationally and has the potential to convey a strong sense of arrival. The current detail of the proposals for this area, however, appears confused and we are particularly unconvinced by the concept of this space as a square. The proposed form of the labs building and its relationship with the arrival routes, including entrances to the adult and children's hospitals, does not create a clearly defined public space, as might be implied by the analogy of a square. As such, it is critical that an architectural language is developed for the landscape and building designs which both gives clarity and identity to the elements and, in their combination, forms a space that provides welcome, orientation and direction to patients and visitors. Care must be taken to ensure that the public entrances are clearly defined in terms of their presence in the arrival space (in comparison to the non-public labs building) and the recently introduced diagonal link is integrated with the adjacent buildings, pedestrian networks and wider landscaped areas.

Whilst there has been significant design development of the arrival space for those on planned hospital visits, there was less evidence of a similar focus on patient experience upon arrival at the A+E entrance.  Further information is requested describing both wayfinding to this entrance and the nature of the arrival sequence, to demonstrate that this critical area will not feel like a ‘back door' to the hospitals.

2.4       Car Parking

We support the proposal to stack car parking in areas of lesser importance, reducing the visual impact upon the immediate environment, affording more land for development, and also removing the clutter of surface parking often experienced in hospital developments, thus strengthening the overall built form of the Masterplan. However, pedestrian links from the multi-storey car parks to the walkways and building entrances are weak and we encourage further resolution of these as part of the ongoing design development of the diagonal route and entry spaces noted above. In particular, the points where these links cross the blue light traffic route will require careful consideration, in terms of priority and delineation.  

2.5       Parks

As already stated, we are highly supportive of the notion of a healthcare complex integrated with public parkland and found the images provided of high quality public spaces inspiring. This move does, however, raise issues regarding access, boundaries, security and maintenance, which will need to be addressed. The landscape designs require further development, and should be designed with the public in mind, paying particular attention to the necessary boundary treatments and various edge conditions at the parks' junctions with each of the roadways and buildings; i.e. are these areas open or closed to the surrounding public streets and how would this affect or encourage public access and movement? We consider it to be imperative that a robust landscape strategy and maintenance programme is established and implemented to safeguard the future of the parkland spaces. Furthermore, we ask that the impact of future development phases on the park areas be carefully considered to ensure that any new built forms are not detrimental to the success of these valuable amenities.

Conclusion

In general, we consider the Masterplan to have been developed successfully. The overall structure of the site has the potential to read as a coherent piece of urban fabric and the substantial areas of high quality landscaping could provide exceptional amenity, uncommon for a project of this nature. We are, therefore, supportive of the structure and direction established in the Masterplan. We also recommend that the key qualities and amenities being described are given status in the planning system to ensure that the impact of any future phases upon the hospital's environment is carefully considered. We encourage the Project Team to further develop details of the proposed landscape spaces in tandem with the articulation of each of the buildings, as part of the ongoing discussions and detailed application process with Glasgow City Council Development Management.

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