Alder Hey Children’s Health Park
- Location
- Liverpool, UK
- Client
- Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
- Expertise
- Architecture
- Landscape Architecture
- Interior Design
- Completion
- 2015
- Size
- 285,000 sq m
- Cost
- £167m
The Alder Hey Children’s Health Park is a 270 bed state of the art Children’s hospital in Liverpool. The building goes beyond being just a place of care, it blends innovative architecture into a public park, offering a fresh and supportive environment for healing.
The Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool stands out as an exemplar for paediatric healthcare, not just for its striking design but for the way it connects with the community and nature, making a real difference in the lives of patients and those who visit. The hospital’s design is a blend of creativity and practicality, featuring three wings that stretch out like open arms, each one connected to beautiful gardens. This design brings nature right up to the building, making it feel like a natural extension of the park. The grassy park flows seamlessly onto the hospital’s curved roofs, blurring the lines between the building and the landscape, and providing a sense of openness and connection to the outdoors for everyone.
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“What has been developed is an environment that is quieter than our previous hospital and one that brings nature in between its fingers into three main cores, unified by the atrium. It brings nature into people’s lives an awful lot more and thats only a positive thing.”
Inside, the building is bathed in natural light and vibrant colours, with large windows offering stunning views of the surrounding landscape. It creates a soothing, therapeutic space where children can heal more comfortably. Each floor even has balconies that allow patients and staff to step outside, breathe fresh air, and enjoy panoramic views without leaving the building.
The entire design process was inspired by and involved the children who would one day be its patients, ensuring that their needs and imaginations were at the heart of the project. With the expansion to 16 operating theatres and 12 inpatient theatres, the hospital also embraces cutting edge, international standards of care. It offers 21st century clinical capabilities within a space that’s designed to be both efficient and adaptable.
*than a comparable project
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“This is a world-class healing environment for children and young people. From the beginning, our vision has always been to create something really special and unique – a leading-edge centre for children’s healthcare and research. BDP’s willingness to listen to the views of our patients, families and our staff has been vital in turning this vision into a reality.”
The architectural concept, where the building is cut away from the landscape, is extended internally where striation patterns continue inside the atrium. The use of natural timbers, staggered floor patterns and the form of the treehouse all add to create a lively space that feels connected to the park outside. Indeed, the atrium is the heart of Alder Hey.
Art, colour, and storytelling create exciting external places between the ‘sandstone rock faces’ of the building fingers, with a careful selection of planting adding a further sensory experience. The creation of a setting that is inspiring, therapeutic, and energising.
The interior design is a seamless and intrinsic part of the hospital’s overall concept. It is inspired by our concept of the ‘hill in the park’ and deploys materials, colour, light and sound to reinforce the identity and the connection with nature. Artwork is also woven into the fabric of the building with Lucy Casson’s amazing creatures appearing in sculptures, fabrics and signage.
The public realm (or primary internal circulation) is particularly important, which is why we developed the idea of the atrium concourse as a ‘heart space’, that focuses on social interaction, art, music; what we have referred to as the ‘street life’ of Alder Hey. Our design’s sensitivity to scale and sense of place are attributes that made the hospital feel welcoming and memorable whilst preserving a reassuring feeling of familiarity.
Our Landscape Architecture team was responsible for the design and delivery of the Children’s Health Park comprising of the main hospital landscape, adjacent public park, and Trust gardens. The new hospital position in the heart of the local community parkland, created a whole-site integrated landscape solution, focused upon enhancing the patient and visitor experience.
Gardens, terraces and edible landscapes encourage patients to use the external landscape as a healing resource. The landscape concepts of the two primary gardens were developed around the themes of a ‘dry canyon’ and a ‘wet ravine’, reinforcing places of art, colour and storytelling.
