After a year of operation in which a population of over 500,000 people had their acute health needs served, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital has once again scooped an award for excellence in design, from the Urban Land Institute.
Designed by architects HKS, Cagni Williams and Sonnemann Toon, the hospital – managed by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust – sets a new standard for clinical healthcare design, as well as being a community regeneration catalyst.
Speaking following the announcement of the win, SWB NHS Trust Group Chief Development Officer Rachel Barlow commented: “We truly appreciate this award, as it underlines what the people who work, visit, and are treated here already know. This building is a study in excellence. On entering one gets a sense of the outdoors, especially from our fifth-floor winter garden that offers spectacular views of landmarks across the west and central Birmingham.
“As an acute healthcare facility, the wellbeing of everyone who uses our site is of utmost importance, and it is a fact that green spaces improve mood and aid recovery, so the Midland Met is much more than a hospital, it is a community hub for our population to use for prevention as much as treatment after the fact.”
The hospital provides emergency department, maternity, children’s, and adult acute inpatient services in an environment that is purpose-built for clinical teams to work together. The flexible design of the building’s interior spaces enables the Trust to adapt easily to changes in health care delivery and community needs.
It is unique in providing a fully covered car park and drop off for taxis, buses, patient transport and private cars. With a large area of accommodation, (approximately 80,000sqm) a suitable, human scale has been achieved by breaking down the functions into separate but related parts, with significant set-backs at levels two and the main welcome and reception area on level five, reducing the scale of the building.
Controlled use of colour within the façade is applied to aid wayfinding. The facade materials are organised by vertical elements to break up the mass of the building and reflect the rhythm of the structural grid. Structure and servicing requirements are allowed to inform the architectural language, resulting in a building that is inviting, legible and expressive.
The Midland Met is the anchor of an impressive ambition as part of the wider healthcare campus, with the opening on site of Sandwell’s first university campus expected early next year. The benefits of the development continue to be realised as further homes and retail development are underway, firmly establishing the hospital as the catalyst that reimagines what was an industrial area into a multicultural and vibrant hub.