The new Acute Hospital in development by Llewelyn Davies is a cornerstone of the Jersey Government’s ambitious programme to reconfigure and refresh the island’s healthcare facilities. Stephen Featherstone is responsible for the overall direction of the project for Llewelyn Davies and the client interface and explains further.
Aerial visualisation of the new hospital.
Background
Jersey is not part of the NHS but faces similar challenges. It has an ageing population that puts increasing pressure on hospital buildings which are themselves ageing, inefficient and hinder modern healthcare practice.
Programme Clinical Design Lead, Robert Etchell, talks about how the shape of the new Acute Hospital has been designed with clinical function at the forefront while also considering the site’s surroundings, ensuring the larger mass of the hospital is designed away from residential areas.
The need for a new hospital has been recognised for at least a decade. The initial proposal was to redevelop the existing general hospital facility in St Helier, the island’s capital, and two outline planning applications were made. These were, however, refused for various reasons, including ‘overdevelopment’.
That was the situation in 2020 when Llewelyn Davies were appointed by the designated delivery partner as lead architects for the ‘Our Hospital Project (OHP)’. Then an election returned a new Jersey government, and the project was cancelled.
A change of strategy
The new government adopted a more holistic approach to its healthcare challenges, seeking to deliver a wider range of facilities across several sites rather than one.
Llewelyn Davies was reappointed and the team subsequently looked at redefining, redesigning, and delivering the revised brief. Working alongside us, healthcare planners, MJ Medical, reviewed how best to deliver the island’s healthcare services across a range of sites, identifying the need for one ‘acute’ site providing inpatient stays and 24-hour care, a second offering ambulatory and outpatient care, with other services, such as mental health, rehabilitation and step-down facilities being provided elsewhere on the Island. This work led to the selection of Overdale as the preferred site for an acute hospital whilst the existing general hospital in St Helier would be redeveloped over a number of phases to provide outpatients and ambulatory care.
The threshold to the main entrance, one of four access points into the central concourse of the hospital.
Developing the new hospital
The level of stakeholder engagement was substantial and informed the form and arrangement of the development strategy throughout each design stage. This included over two hundred meetings with clinical stakeholders in addition to statutory authorities and community groups.
The evolution of the site strategy and hospital design responded to three key factors:
- The need to deliver the optimum hospital design, able to respond flexibly to future change
- A recognition of the complex context of the site with regard to the existing residential community and other sensitive uses, in addition to strategic views into the site from heritage landmarks
- The opportunity to enhance the sustainability credentials of the scheme, maximising environmentally passive design in regard to daylight, solar gain, sunlight, wind and natural ventilation.
At all times, the design evolved whilst being cognisant of the ongoing UK’s NHP programme, seeking to identify strategies which could add value to the project, whilst retaining the freedom to reject concepts which were inappropriate to its Jersey context.
In particular, consideration of MMC together with the application of Target Value Design (TVD) were integral in the development of the Stage 2 and 3 designs.
Overdale is a fabulous location for an acute hospital. At over 60 metres above sea level, the higher parts of the building and the inpatient rooms enjoy virtually 360° views across the southern coast of Jersey with its extensive beaches and bays, and the rural hinterland to the north and east. The new hospital will sit immediately adjacent to Le Val Andre alongside a newly created, rich landscape which will contribute to patients’ recovery as well as providing respite for staff.
Woodlands view of the new hospital, connecting existing pathways into the hospital campus, including an Active Travel Route for pedestrians and cyclists.
Design Evolution
The design evolved around the concept of a ‘pinwheel’, an approach which both recognised the special qualities of the Overdale site, being enriched by its high ground and relationship with the natural environment, as well as enabling the clinical planning to be successfully realised. Foremost, the delivery of super-efficient, clinical relationships and adjacencies, avoiding the traditional hospital ‘street’, providing for flexible planning strategies to accommodate future change. Furthermore, enabling access to the central concourse from all cardinal directions, facilitating proximity to the main entrance concourse for accessible parking, bus and taxi drop-off, patient transport services, maternity and general parking provision without each compromising the other. This ‘organic’ approach to the site development strategy allowed each area of the site to respond to its immediate physical context, in massing and materiality, demonstrating sensitivity to the existing built environment.
Demolition of the dilapidated, unused and former healthcare buildings at Overdale is complete, as work progresses towards the construction of the new Acute Hospital.
As the design moves towards a construction start on site in the autumn of 2025, this hugely significant project for Jersey, designed to UK healthcare standards, will be eagerly awaited alongside the UK’s own ambitious NHP programme in the coming years.
Any further questions?
If you have any further questions about this article, please contact us via london@ldavies.com or 0207 907 7900
