LIHE (London Institute for Healthcare Engineering)

This new building will be located within the London Borough of Lambeth’s Albert Embankment Conservation Area, opposite the World Heritage Site of the Palace of Westminster and adjacent to the Grade I listed Lambeth Palace. The new building will sit amongst Henry Currey’s 1868 Grade II listed group of Venetian-inspired buildings, the first example of the pavilion type of hospital that was to become the standard for Victorian healthcare buildings.

LIHE’s initial focus will be on key clinical challenges in cancer, neurological, cardiovascular, ophthalmology, oral health and prenatal conditions, which have been selected for their high disease burden and potential for transformation through healthcare engineering. Location of the new facility on the Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital site enables researchers to easily access adjacent equipment and technology that allows them to quickly test prototypes. It is this gestation and testing of research ideas that really inspired how the building was designed, to be flexible and adaptable and to encourage encounters that lead to innovation.

Through HLM Architects’ previous experience in the design of research facilities we have implemented our digital tool ‘HLM_Insight’ which, through an on-line questionnaire, is used to explore building-user’s preferences for the qualities of the built environment – both in terms of the way they want to use space effectively and the qualities that the built environment should have in order to best support their activities. This survey explores psychological and physiological needs and generates a brief for the building that supports people’s health and wellbeing – enabling them to be more productive.

The results of our surveys show that researchers who spend long periods on focused tasks particularly value a workplace that offers stable temperatures and good ventilation. Unsurprisingly, they do not want to be distracted by the need to break away from focused tasks and adjust these for themselves. They just expect uniformity of temperature and fresh air. This is an interesting conundrum for designers who generally seek to maximize natural ventilation where possible to reduce carbon emissions. Similarly, researchers also valued high quality of task lighting. Less obviously, we found that they also highly valued having a view to the outside as this helped with concentration and feeling connected with the world. It should be noted that studies have shown that a view to the outside can reduce heart rates by 1.2 times, reducing blood pressure and feelings of stress. Furthermore, researchers expressed a desire to be in proximity to nature and natural materials. These, they feel, help them remain calm and maintain a connection with the outside world – particularly if they are spending long periods indoors. Finally, researchers acknowledged that chance encounters and conversations with colleagues outside of their immediate team often led to innovative ideas. Encouraging movement around the building thus became a key driver of the design. The added benefit to health and wellbeing of stimulating movement away from sitting at a desk came into play here too.

In tandem with these data-supported insights into the requirements of the brief to support effective working, we engaged with the building users to understand the process of their work in order to understand how the building might better support their needs.

Flat-slab construction enables services to be fixed in any direction and the arrangement of service cores and fire escapes enables the building to be replanned for zonal use in the future by multiple tenants if required.

Creating a very flexible building can sometimes result in a lack of identity. Recognizing this we also sought to create a symbolic expression of the building’s use externally. A key feature of the building is a ‘collaboration’ staircase. The staircase is a key aspect of the design concept. Not only is it a very efficient arrangement, the prominent position of the stair with its associated break-out areas and biophilic features – including timber finishes and a ‘living wall’ of plants that goes the full height of the building, creating interesting natural light effects inside – make it an appealing space and this encourages building users to use it rather than the lifts (with associated wellbeing benefits of movement that this brings). The scissor arrangement also enables more instinctive and directional movement across each floor, and most importantly, it helps people to approach and pass with a choice of route with a large landing that facilitates interactions and chance encounters. The proximity of immediate touch-down areas then enables conversations to flourish and the potential for cross-pollination of ideas. It’s much more than a staircase, it’s the physical embodiment of collaboration, a place for chance encounters and to explore ideas.

A satisfying by-product of the chromatid-like nature of the form of the stairs also seemed symbolically fitting given the research focus of the building users. The stair works really hard in many ways, connecting all aspects of the building’s use – from staff admin areas, research, educational, exhibition and conference uses at the ground floor; with upper levels 1 and 2 more discrete and secure, dedicated to research; and the rooftop level 3 providing meeting and conference facilities as well as a social events space – as well as a very welcome outdoor amenity for building users to support their wellbeing by providing the prospect of the river and access to daylight and fresh air.