The Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit, at Musgrave Park Hospital is a ground-breaking facility focused on providing the best possible service in a very specialist area of patient care and recovery. The scheme includes inpatient and outpatient facilities, therapy areas, gardens, integrated arts project etc. The ground floor In-patient Unit opens onto therapy garden, with the Day and OPD facility on the first floor. To avoid long straight corridors, the unit has been planned on a gentle curve, with daylight to all key rooms including nurse bases where top lighting has been achieved to improve the environment and provide a visual focus. The site was master-planned to accommodate future buildings and form a rehabilitation “campus”.
The building is constructed in high quality facing brickwork, modular zinc cladding and specialist render. The curved roof is finished with standing seam aluminium. The building in terms of space-standards and robustness has been designed to accommodate disabled people using large motorised wheelchairs. Following feedback from past patients, the interior design of the first floor is more akin to a private health-club and denotes progress from inpatient to outpatient in the healing process.
The completed project received much acclaim form both the client, clinicians, patients and visitors who use the building. As a regional acquired brain injury unit it serves not only the local Belfast community but also the whole of N. Ireland. It is considered an exemplar solution for a building of this typology and purpose. This acclaim has been evidenced as follows:
