Wellbeing
The new, purpose-built Mental Health Centre as part of the OHP campus will provide a regenerative and healing environment for recovery. The design is sensitive to the needs of both the patients and staff, and will provide a safe, restorative, and non-institutional environment where patients will be supported and feel safe and valued.
The design aesthetic offers a calm and positive environment and materials palette. The internal spaces aim to create a ‘human-focused’ and uplifting environment with a sense of ownership, where the focus is on healing & safety by design. The Centre will provide 100% of single bedrooms with ensuites.
This Front-of-House environment offers a simple and serene aesthetic, where materials and finishes are natural and pared back so that the surrounding natural environment can shine. The space is highly transparent with good visibility and sight lines across the entire space to the landscaped central courtyard behind the Entrance Lounge.
Recognised as a key contributor to the healing process, extensive visual and physical connectivity to nature via courtyards and gardens feature heavily throughout this Mental Health Centre. Therapeutic and mental health benefits have been attributed to interactions with green spaces and natural environments which include reduced anxiety, increased self-esteem and psychological wellbeing, improved mood, academic performance and cognitive function.
Sensory Considerations will help patient comfort, safety, and the healing process.
The Centre’s layout provides easy patient orientation and simple, logical planning will help patient familiarity and to help make the environment more accessible for all conditions. The internal environment focusses on comfort with reduction in unnecessary clutter and potentially disorienting visual and auditory stimuli.
Materiality and its applications provide a simple calming palette throughout to help stress reduction, avoidance over stimulation and to provide a suitable backdrop for all.
In combination with abundant natural light and views out to the surrounding natural environment and landscaping, the provision of soft, indirect, full-spectrum lighting will ensure spaces feel comfortable and non-institutional.
‘Look & Feel’ Imagery and design aspiration.