We speak to the designers behind The Cripps Health Centre, the country’s biggest GP clinic.
The transformative design of a new £9m GP clinic is leading the modernisation of primary GP clinic facilities across the UK.
Located on the University of Nottingham’s main campus, The Cripps Health Centre is the UK’s largest GP surgery by patient number.
Commissioned via the university’s construction framework, CPMG Architects was approached to design the ground-breaking centre, with a strategy that put patient pathways and end-user experience at its core.
And this has resulted in a building that breaks the mould of a traditional urban healthcare setting.
Anil Parmar, director at CPMG Architects, said: “Having served the university for more than 40 years, the former healthcare premises needed radically updating to meet health sector standards, as well as making room for a new dental practice and pharmacy.
“The new centre needed to provide a holistic approach to health and dental care for the university, the wider community, and its growing patient registration list of 41,000 people.”
Consultation
The design team used Building Information Modelling (BIM) to inform decision-making and to secure stakeholder buy-in.
During the pre-construction phase, medical practitioners, students and representatives from the university fed back through design meetings on highly accurate visualisations of the building and interiors created using BIM and the NHS Activity Database.
This helped to inform key decisions throughout the entire design process as well as supporting high-level co-ordination of the architecture, structures, services, and furniture.
Inspired by home
In stark contrast to a typical urban health centre, Cripps Health Centre was built on a human scale and sits within the green campus.
The 3,125sq m building was designed specifically to create a patient-friendly, non-institutional environment.
This has resulted in defined public areas for visitors, with clinical rooms positioned at the rear, benefitting from landscaped views over the heart of the campus and a wellbeing garden.
Separate wings have been created to house the GP and dental accommodation, while the pharmacy sits separately, allowing optimal circulation of staff, students and visitors.
Promoting health & wellbeing
It is the high-quality physical environment which will be paramount in promoting health and wellbeing.
By making the environment more relaxing and easier to navigate, feelings of stress and discomfort often experienced in clinical environments are alleviated.
Dr Paul Greatrix, registrar at the University of Nottingham, said, “The new Cripps Health Centre offers an exemplar facility for both our university community and for generations to come”.
Going green
Green in both sustainability and setting, CPMG was tasked with achieving a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating for sustainability.
The green energy philosophy is brought to life through photovoltaic solar panels, a ground-source heating system, and positioning to maximise natural daylight and views onto the surrounding landscape.
The facilities
The new facility enhances the user experience by offering first-class medical facilities and a greater choice of NHS services. It comprises:
In summary
Nick Gregory, a director at CPMG Architects, said, “It is essential for care environments to be patient focused, welcoming and accessible, while remaining private and secure. The scale of this project could have made the centre appear very institutional, but it was planned as a series of linked pavilions placed within the landscape.
“The outcome is a truly-holistic, state-of-the art centre which puts health and wellbeing centre stage. I am confident the new-generation building will act as a benchmark for future primary healthcare settings across the UK”.
The project team
Architect: CPMG
Main contractor: Interserve
M&E, structural, and civil engineer: Arup
Landscape architect: Munro+Whitten
Quantity surveyor: Gleeds
Project management: Faithful & Gould
Foundations and groundworks: Stone Construction
Frame: BSB Structural
Floors: Raised Floor Solutions and Hillside Contracts
Fire protection, security, heating and ventilation, and plumbing: Sleaford Building Services
Roofing and external walls: T R Freeman
Doors and windows: Fox Aluminium Systems
Interior fit-out and wall finishing: Global Contract Interiors
Painting and decorating: Swirl Force