The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House wins two RIBA North West Awards
The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital has won a RIBA North West Award and RIBA North West Client of the Year.
The jury said of the project: “It is hard to overestimate the challenging nature of the project brief, or indeed the amazing work the staff and users of the building undertake. Those the jury met were full of praise for the way this project enhances the possibilities for a therapeutic environment.”
Designed for patients’ mental wellbeing, The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House pioneers a new approach to clinical buildings by connecting to the natural world.
The Alder Hey project brings together in two connected buildings a range of facilities that were previously scattered across the hospital site and the city of Liverpool. The Catkin Centre provides a new home for outpatient services, while Sunflower House provides a 12-bed inpatient mental health unit for children aged 5-13 with the most challenging mental health conditions.
The new buildings form part of a ‘Health Campus’ at Alder Hey, offering a joined-up approach to the treatment of physical and mental health for children and young adults. The buildings and the spaces between buildings have been designed to accentuate opportunities for planting, walks through landscape and views to create a holistic approach to “health in nature”.
Generous, daylight-filled circulation routes and the use of natural materials in Sunflower House replace the long, narrow stress-inducing corridors of traditional hospitals.