New £200 million plans unveiled for Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park

The scheme will have at its heart a ground-floor co-creation space to facilitate user-centred design and allow designers, clinicians, children and their families to explore unmet needs, create new designs and test evolving technologies.

Clinical spaces will bring a new approach to contact to create the ‘Paediatric Consultation of the Future’. Facilities will include 3D printing, robotics, laser cutting, oculus rift and other technology tools to develop prototypes. Children with long-term conditions will have access to novel technologies in dedicated therapy and rehabilitation spaces while a living lab will re-create home and hospital environments for the testing of new technologies.

Flexible office space will allow the co-location of clinicians, researchers and industry partners to focus on innovations that improve the health of children. A dedicated public engagement space will be used to provide up to date information on best practice healthcare, help change behaviour in children, families and clinicians and disseminate successes to the media.

A forward investment master plan which could support the creation of 5,600 high value jobs has also been developed to help ensure that the park will play a major role in the post-pandemic and post-Brexit economy of Sheffield and the Sheffield City Region.

The CCHT is set to be the first of its kind in the world and position the UK as a global leader in paediatrics and child health. It aims to develop technology to address key national strategic priorities in child health including childhood obesity, child and adolescent mental health, long term conditions and prevention.

Last year, Sheffield Hallam University’s £14m Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), also designed by HLM Architects, opened at the heart of the park.

The facility has welcomed a full-house of 24 start-up business from across the world to its £900,000 Wellbeing Accelerator programme and this week announced expansion of its long-Covid recovery project and plans for new research into the role of exercise in cancer care.

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was set up after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to deliver whole population improvements in health and wellbeing.

Professor Paul Dimitri, professor of child health and director of research and innovation at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The CCHT will create over 100 high value jobs, and its co-location with the Oasis School and University Technical College will provide research and employment opportunities in the future. Overall, we predict that the CCHT alone will generate £30m in research funding, attract £50m in private sector investment and will deliver over £200m in savings to the NHS in the next ten years.”

HLM Architects Sheffield Studio Lead, Delia Harmston, said: “We are excited to be a part of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park next stage of development as it advances into a world-leading hub for health and wellbeing. The CCHT will be adjacent to the recently completed AWRC, situated within complex constraints of newly completed and proposed future developments. The resulting design showcases the innovative technologies being developed, encourages collaboration between academics, clinicians and businesses, and provides a playful and warm environment for children and their families to visit.”