State of the art building at Crosshouse Hospital making good progress
Work is progressing on schedule at the site of the new Ayrshire Maternity
Unit. Construction work is due to be completed on the £15m building
by July 2006 with the building finally opening in August of that year.
The project was won by the Ayrshire Hospitals Consortium, which comprises
Mackenzie Partnership, Dawn Developments and FES.
This project will create a new state-of-the-art maternity unit at Crosshouse
Hospital. It will become the focal point of a network of maternity facilities
across Ayrshire and Arran, providing a comprehensive service from a single
site. The centre will embrace all aspects of maternity care from early
pregnancy assessments and ultrasound to delivery and neonatal care.
The design has been shaped as a direct response to the clinical brief
and site context. From a simple ‘figure of 8’ plan, the form
is modeled to respond to and reduce the impact the building may have on
the residential area. Large courtyard spaces allow natural light to penetrate
deep into the plan. The linear block forms a ‘bookend’ to
the campus and continues the hospital frontage towards the entrance of
the proposed maternity unit. This arrangement gives the maternity unit
a sense of identity and focal point, whilst still maintaining visual connections
to the other Hospital entrances along the frontage.
Also important is the effect the massing may have from a distant viewpoint
where detail is much harder to see. It is from this standpoint that the
building’s silhouette has been carefully considered.
Although the building is one which is resolutely ‘British’,
its principal influences are European where a greater level of importance
is placed on the public spaces of a hospital building. |
