Healthcare

The best community healthcare buildings bring services together in one friendly, accessible place at the heart of communities.

Many of our projects integrate primary care with wider community and social care services, creating coherent healthcare environments that are easy to understand and use. We carefully design for the needs of multiple services within single buildings or campuses, including diagnostics, therapies and urgent care, alongside shared community spaces where appropriate. Clear planning of entrances, waiting areas and circulation helps reduce stress, support privacy and create efficient environments where both patients and healthcare teams can thrive.

When designing longer‑stay care environments, we take care to understand how people live, recover and receive care within these spaces every day.

Patient care sits at the forefront of our design process, informing the sensitive and often complex design of hospital‑related and longer‑stay settings, including intermediate, assessment, palliative and residential care. We focus on clear, calm layouts that support patient wellbeing. Drawing on our residential experience, we design at a more domestic scale, prioritising daylight, access to outdoor space and legible circulation. We support clients in planning phased upgrades and new longer‑stay care environments, from integrating facilities within existing hospital estates to establishing standalone care settings.

Designing for older people and those living with dementia means creating environments that feel calm, familiar and easy to understand.

We have specialist experience designing dementia‑informed, elderly care an extra care settings, using evidence‑based design principles at every scale, from overall planning and spatial hierarchy to internal layouts, materials and wayfinding. Our designs focus on legibility, orientation and independence, helping reduce anxiety while supporting dignity and wellbeing. These principles are applied across healthcare, residential and mixed‑use care environments, allowing spaces to adapt sensitively as needs change over time.

Designing healthcare environments with nature and access to daylight has been shown to support patient wellbeing and can have a powerful, positive impact on recovery.

We use wellbeing and landscape principles as design tools to create light‑filled environments with calming views and quieter places to pause, helping people feel relaxed and supported. By balancing robust, hygienic materials with warmth and sensory comfort, we ensure spaces feel caring and welcoming rather than cold or clinical. Courtyards, gardens, planted routes and breakout areas bring nature deep into our buildings, supporting recovery, encouraging social interaction and benefiting patients, visitors and staff alike.