The Trust’s vision for the LGI site calls for a single, state-of-the-art building that houses two unique hospitals—one for adults and one for children—including a centralised maternity and neonatal unit. Significantly, these designs bring together, for the first time, clinical services for children and young people under one roof.

Patient care and well-being is at the centre of the design with all wards orientating toward the outdoors, maximising exposure to daylight and good views. Communal spaces also feature throughout, including a rooftop plaza at the heart of the children’s hospital. A garden terrace on the fifth floor of one of the hospitals, complete with plants mirroring the local landscape, as well as green space in the site’s car park, draws inspiration from the surrounding verdant environment.

Taking cues from the ways people interact with technology in a pandemic era, the design team have incorporated digital features throughout the project, including a cutting-edge twin technology will be used to track the building’s energy performance and other technology will reduce bureaucratic processes helping to increase the amount of time physicians and care staff can spend with patients.

The design team is now undertaking staff and patient engagement sessions to gather input and support the next stage of design development. The adults, children, young people, parents, carers and clinicians from across the region will be instrumental in helping to shape how the facility might look and feel in these early designs.

This unique team is known globally for designing transformational environments that support the health of communities. They have designed and delivered some of the most innovative hospitals and women’s and children’s care environments in the world.