Psychological and Mental Health Services, Great Ormond Street Hospital by artist Giles Round – GOSH Arts

Nominee Information

In 2021 Giles Round was appointed by a panel of internal stakeholders to create a scheme for the new Psychological and Mental Health Services unit, a redevelopment project within the GOSH site. Working closely with Day Architectural and through workshops with the children and young people from the inpatients Mildred Creak Unit, Round developed a colour palette for the entirety of the department, including staff and back of house spaces, as well as compositions for the joinery.

Giles drew from a wide range of references including previous research for the exhibition ‘Living with Buildings’ at Wellcome Collection, Alvar Aalto’s Paimio sanitorium, GOSH’s ornate St. Christopher’s chapel, and Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ – all of which relate to transformative spaces, and the relationships between colour, form and design inspiring a sense of wellbeing and care.

The resulting artwork establishes a visual language or code of rules for orienting oneself in the department through the colour palette applied to all surfaces, while the abstract compositions integrated into the bespoke joinery, bi-fold walls, and interstitial blinds create visual moments of delight. The compositions are architectural in scale suggesting that they might be traversed or inhabited, and at moments (like with the integrated seating), invite the patients to actually do so.

The artwork’s repeated motifs of the clouds, yellow circles, and the main green corridor make ambiguous reference to the natural world – something young people often express the desire for while in hospital – while leaving space for the imagination to wander and explore through its abstract forms and shapes. The colours of the cloud shaped Corian bedhead can be controlled by the patients, giving them autonomy over the look and feel of their personal space. The cloud wall coverings in the quiet room derive directly from workshops carried out with children and young people who fantasised about having a soft ‘cloud’ room in the department.

As an artist who is very conscious of the environmental impact of construction and redevelopment projects, Giles intentionally identified artwork opportunities within the existing build. By working closely with Formica to create bespoke panelling for the joinery and the bifold walls, the artwork doesn’t call for any extraneous materials, therefore is less wasteful and more robust. Additionally, by working with the architects to determine the colour palette applied to the doors, floors and walls, the scheme becomes embedded in the infrastructure of the department in a seamless and subtle manner.

Giles’s artwork for PAMHS has resulted in a space that is imbued with thoughtfulness and care for the young people and staff that occupy it, some of whom are there for extended periods of time. The long-term engagement with the young people and staff results in a truly co-created artwork. We feel this is an exemplary case study of how art can be integrated into the building design in a way that offers benefits environmentally, economically and most importantly that aids the recovery and wellbeing of the patient.