New QEII Hospital

Cor Wagenaar, Noor Mens

Description

The new QEII Hospital in Welwyn, in Hertfordshire, one of England’s first garden cities, has very little in common with the traditional, bulky complexes Britain’s National Health Service produced for several decades. Its scale is comparatively modest; the design is friendly and refers to the vernacular of the original idyllic scenery of the site. With an outpatient department, ante/post-natal care, some diagnostic facilities (e.g. X-rays, MRI and CT scanning), day wards and a hot floor with medical functions, the building anticipates the inevitable redistribution of healthcare facilities toward local and primary care. It does not provide surgery – although it does have an endoscopy department. In its urgent care center, only minor incidents are treated, and the ambulance facilities are planned for light duty. It has no inpatient beds. Patients who need advanced treatment will be routed to Lister Hospital in the neighboring town, or to other, more centralized, acute and tertiary medical institutions that in the future are expected to concentrate on high level cure. The New QEII Hospital is designed as a prototype of a new kind of facility and adopts a new role, namely that of a community-based health center that ideally bridges the gap between crisis management (the traditional hospital) and prevention (providing information and support).

Befitting a garden city, the building’s three interconnected L-shapes are organized around an almost square garden. All waiting areas are located next to this central courtyard garden; bathed in daylight, they offer a serene view. Above the timber-clad colonnaded entrance the top floor is cantilevered, offering visitors protection against inclement weather. The triple-height hall with a giant mural by David Tremlett suggests that the landscaped zone outside infiltrates the building and connects to the garden in the courtyard. While the two-story wings respond to the domestic scale of the surroundings, the building partially rises to four levels under a sloping monopitch roof, clad in zinc-coated aluminum. This pitched roof creates a rhythmic composition. All main elevations are clad in hand-glazed ceramic tiles. Glass, render and in particular the timber-lined walls and soffits of the protected walkways contribute to a friendly impression. The opening windows are protected by laser-cut metal screens by artist Charlotte Mann, thus avoiding security bars. The building was designed to high energy-efficiency standards and achieved a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating.