Healthy Density – Creating Calm Amongst Chaos

Synopsis

The provision for quality mental health facilities within our urban environments is a challenge many of our healthcare providers face. As our cities grown in scale and population, so do the mental health needs of residents – but how can we provide therapeutic, healing environments amongst the noise, chaos, and commotion of our urban settings?

Drawing on our work at the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People, we’ll look at how we overcame the constraints of a dense urban site.

Learning points:

– Recognition of the requirement for densification for urban healthcare sites due to the worsening condition of the UK’s mental health crisis. The growing mental health crisis in cities demands vast expansion on clinical mental health provisions. The existing building stock of the SLaM is no longer fit for purpose due to required growth in CAHMS services, with an estimated one in eight children suffering with mental health issues today.

– Explanation of the collaborative methods between clinicians and researchers which aim to reduce the requirement for projected physical expansion of estates. The Pears Maudsley Centre is designed as a collaborative hub accelerating the pace and societal impact of translational research offering a shift to preventative, as opposed to reactive treatment methods.

– Exploration of a design approach which enables both the densification of a site whilst retaining therapeutic environments and a connection with nature, and how a building with a briefed area of almost four times the area of its site can still meet the clinical requirements for a healthy and therapeutic environment.