Project details

Employer

East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices

Project

Children’s Hospice Staff Training and Administrative Centre

Capital Value

£3.7m (2011)

Contract

JCT Standard Form of Contract 2011 Without Quantities

Contractor

Barnes Construction

Completion

May 2011

BREEAM Rating

Good

Project Partners

Cost Consultants: Castons
Planning Supervisor/CDM: MLM Consulting Engineers (now Sweco)
Ecology: Susan Deakin Ecology
Conservation and Management: Aurum Ecology
Structural Engineer: J. P. Chick & Partners
M&E Engineer: MLM Consulting

Summary

The charity East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices supports families throughout their experience of caring for children with life-threatening or life-limiting illnesses. Increased demand in the region necessitated a new facility and an attractive heavily wooded site was made available by the Rope Foundation.

We worked with the CEO, Heads of Care and Nursing, and Facilities and IT managers to develop the brief for the new hospice and held several interactive events with staff over a period of months as the design evolved. End of life care is only part of the EACH’s work; the hospice acts as a base for all their work in Suffolk and North Essex, a home from home for families, and an ongoing place of support for the bereaved.

Built in the centre of a four-acre woodland site, the building provides six children’s bedrooms, family accommodation, activity areas, therapy rooms, a staff wing and outdoor facilities. Designed around a courtyard and with strong visual links to the landscape, the building is a safe, non-institutional environment where children, families and staff can receive respite care.

Placing a complex and highly serviced building on protected woodland posed several environmental challenges which were met via a collaborative approach, integrating the expertise of contractor, ecologist, arboriculturalist, structural and services engineers.

The building is designed for low environmental impact with material choices throughout. Extensive green roofs have been planted with native drought resistant species to contribute to reviving the ecology of the woodland which had been damaged by the 1989 storms.

The site overall is the subject of a 15 year Wildlife Management Plan

Awards

Design Commendation from Suffolk Association of Architects
Award of Distinction from the Ipswich Society