The design vision of a number of client bodies are now public. Over recent months, Design Statements produced by Boards when developing their Initial Agreement for projects have been published as part of their business case. These documents, for services as varied as inpatient mental health and pharmaceutical manufacture, capture the direct link between the design of the built environment and the needs of the people for whom it is developed – describing what is needed to support how people come together and interact in the new service model.

The projects each developed a strategic design vision; describing the ethos and key attributes that the developing facility must possess to support patients and staff both now, and also to allow flexibility for the future. The design statements are published on the projects’ pages below as examples of statements that received supported status from the NHSScotland Design Assessment Process:

• Royal Edinburgh Hospital Campus
• Access to Unlicenced Medicines in NHS Scotland

More are in development and will be published in due course. The development of these statements demonstrate the versatility of the methodology and provide a challenge to the design and development industry to come forward with the skills and sensitivities needed to realise these pragmatic and poetic visions.

Client teams are encouraged to contact A&DS as early as possible for support in developing their project specific Design Statement.