Design in Mental Health Award for The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House
The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital has been named New Build Project of the Year (UK) at the Design in Mental Health Awards.
Considered nationally as the most prestigious awards for the design and build community in mental healthcare, the Design in Mental Health Awards recognise projects that embody exemplary design, innovation and collaborative approach. The jury said of The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House:
“The judges were impressed with the continuous links to nature throughout all aspects of the designed solutions, recognising the importance this plays to wellbeing.”
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.