This week’s instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features Goddard Littlefair’s healthcare design project that uses modern aesthetics to create a true sense of wellbeing.
One Stop Doctors is a boundary-changing health and wellness clinic, which sets a new standard of excellence in the private healthcare sector and offers patients on-demand medical expertise, along with outpatient diagnostics, physiotherapy, dentistry and aesthetics. This is all available within a ‘one stop’ clinic, available from early morning to late evenings and weekends to fit with patients’ busy working lives. The brief was to create an environment that embodied the instant premium touch-points patients might expect from a high-end service environment, while communicating the calm, soothing and welcoming feel of an obviously patient-centric experience, so that there is as little stress as possible at every stage of the patient journey. The design emphasis maximises the contribution of the environment towards promoting a sense of wellbeing and creating confidence in the clinical excellence patients will experience.
SBID had the opportunity to speak with Martin Goddard, Director & Co-Founder at Goddard Littlefair.
Company: Goddard Littlefair
Project: One Stop Doctors
Project Location: London, United Kingdom
What was the client’s brief?
The brief was to create an environment that embodied the instant premium touch-points you’d expect from a high-end service environment, whilst communicating the calm, soothing and welcoming feel of an obviously patient-centric experience, so there’d be as little stress as possible at every stage of the patient journey. The client was very keen to pull on our experience of premium spa and wellness centre design to achieve this.
‘We were not looking for the usual clinical healthcare design, but wanted a designer who could share our vision for creating an ambience that was relaxed, reassuring and tranquil, very comfortable and also aesthetically beautiful, but which still felt professional and reassuring to patients, so they know they are in the best possible care.’ - One Stop Doctors CEO, Ella Tracey
What inspired the design of the project?
We began the project by researching the private sector healthcare market in terms of look and feel and found that most clinics so far had followed the American model, with a very cool and clinical treatment throughout. We wanted our emphasis to be different and for patients to experience a much higher level of design values, maximising the contribution of the environment towards creating a sense of well-being and confidence in the clinical excellence they’re going to encounter.
Then it was all about the idea of a journey, with seamless transitional environments helping the patient to progress through the spaces, decompressing them to be ready for the clinical areas. For example, the welcoming entry lobby area is more akin to a hotel or spa reception and features a sophisticated design treatment using art, texture and drama to give a real sense of arrival. The mood is welcoming and warm with respect for the architecture and full advantage taken of the natural light coming in from the courtyard. Semi-private areas beyond such as waiting areas or corridors feature a natural palette with softer colours, whilst the private areas – the consultation, treatment, dentistry and scanning rooms - also have a lighter palette. This series of colour transitions subliminally signals the patient’s movement from the welcome of arrival to a cooler feel for consultation and cooler feel still for clinical treatments.
What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?
Working with healthcare specification requirements and trying to integrate the medical equipment and required medical materials so they would not look too rigid, but at the same time maintained the high level of professionalism on offer.
What was your team’s highlight of the project?
There were two really. One was the pleasure of introducing art into the scheme using natural shapes and textures, so that the striking art pieces are properly integrated into the design. The second one was some time after the end of the project and finding out how well staff and patients were reacting to the space:
‘We are absolutely delighted with the finished product. Staff, visitors and patients alike are so impressed with the elegance of the design and the attention to detail, but also appreciate the feeling of warmth and comfort that it creates.’ - One Stop Doctors CEO, Ella Tracey
Why did you enter the SBID International Design Awards?
As well as naturally respecting the industry standing of the SBID, it’s also a real pleasure to have your designs recognised and admired by your peers.
Questions answered by Martin Goddard, Director & Co-Founder at Goddard Littlefair.
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If you missed last week's Project of the Week with G-Art Design for the Shanghai Zhihui CIFI Square Modeling Finance Office, click here to see more
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We hope you feel inspired! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
Goddard Littlefair | SBID International Design Awards 2017
The number one issue with aquariums in high risk clinical environments is infection control! An aquarium situated in a healthcare interior like a clinic, surgery or care home not only creates a dynamic and visually appealing feature, but is an effective tool for reducing anxiety, improving recovery and overall wellbeing. These remarkable benefits are often overshadowed by the potential health risk posed by the standard design aquarium system in clinical settings.
Aquariums can quite easily become hubs for communal cross infection as people (children in particular) will have a tendency to touch the display, leaving behind bacteria and viruses on the surface of the glass and surrounding cabinetry. The other source of potential infection is the water itself, with waterborne bacteria potentially creating further complications with recovering patients.
Managing hygiene and cross contamination between patients, staff and members of the public is a major challenge faced by healthcare facilities. Hygiene is a big topic within this sector and the media, with recent outbreaks of so called super bugs causing epidemics on local and national levels. There are serious financial implications connected to poor hygiene for healthcare organisations. Consequences in the event of an outbreak can vary from more money been spent on resources for cleaning and treatments, to a chronic loss of revenue from closures of departments and buildings. This can be a real issue for private organisations that rely on reputation and trust to ensure future sales and consistent revenue.
The design of healthcare spaces has recently become a very specific niche within architectural and interior design. For a designer, creating beautiful healthcare spaces presents a difficult challenge as the usual materials and surfaces that most designers like to work with (i.e. wood, stone and fabrics) are unsuitable for the healthcare environment.
These materials contain pores that allow pathogens to hide and multiply, making these surfaces difficult to keep hygienically clean. Non-porous surfaces like plastic, glass, corian and metals are typically used in these environments as they are easy to clean, however if not applied correctly these surfaces can create a very clinical feel to the environment. Recent innovations in this sector have led to the development of antimicrobial surfaces. These surfaces are made up of materials that contain properties which disrupt the molecular structures of bacteria and viruses causing them to die on contact.
By incorporating non-porous materials and antimicrobial technology into the design of an aquarium you can significantly reduce or even eliminate the risks related to poor hygiene and cross infection. The following design features are should be considered when specifying an aquarium into the layout of a healthcare space:
Creating attractive spaces that are safe and suitable for the application intended is the challenge faced by every designer working with healthcare environments. By specifying interesting features that are made out of the right material a designer can transform a dull, emotionless clinical space into a visceral experience that encourages good wellbeing and a positive state of mind. The use of antimicrobial materials will increase the material cost of a project budget. However this initial investment pales in comparison to the costs associated with an outbreak. Incorporating the right materials into the construction of a healthcare aquarium allows a designer to gain all the visual benefits an aquarium adds to a space whilst minimising the potential risks to patients and the public.
Author: Aquarium designer, SBID member Akil Gordon-Beckford
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