Midland Metropolitan University Hospital

An impressive brand new state-of-the-art acute hospital in Sandwell, west of Birmingham, to provide under one roof cutting edge technologies in medicine in a beautiful environment.

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Client:	Public
Type:	Health
Value:	£500million+
Date:	2024
Size:	100,000+ sqm
Status:	Completed
Location:	Sandwell, Birmingham, UK
Awards:

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, designed by HKS, Cagni Williams and Sonnemann Toon, welcomed its first patients on 6th October 2024. The hospital is the largest acute health care facility within the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

The flagship project, part of the New Hospital Programme, sets a new standard for clinical healthcare design, and is one of the most advanced hospitals in Europe, as well as a community regeneration catalyst in an area with high levels of deprivation.

The hospital provides emergency department, maternity, children’s and adult acute inpatient services in an environment that is purpose-built for clinical teams to work together. The flexible design of the building’s interior spaces will enable the Trust to adapt easily to changes in health care delivery and community needs.

Built on a 16.7 acres site in Smethwick, the project was granted planning in September 2015, with financial close achieved at the end of 2015 and construction started early in 2016.

Analysis of the brief produced a natural stacking of functions with wards at the top with clinical areas in the middle and the car park at the bottom, a unique arrangement for a building of this type. A clear and logical stacking of floors and functions maximises usable floor area, provides direct patterns of use and achieves desired clinical adjacencies internally.

The result is a classical tripartite arrangement of a base, a middle and a top, fronted by a landscaped park to the south which creates a modern and differentiated appearance, and maximises open space on the site whilst promoting health, wellbeing and community use.

A number of courtyards draw natural light into the deep plan podium and provide views out. A large Winter Garden at level 5 provides a flexible covered external space for use all year round. It is a significant volume around which hospital activities are organised, providing multiple opportunities for use ranging from people spilling out of the café and servery area through to the holding of exhibitions, presentations, parties and events.

This building is unique in providing fully covered car park and drop off for taxis, buses, patient transport and private cars. We have developed, uniquely, a single standard grid of 7.8m x 7.8m that works efficiently and flexibly to accommodate car park, clinical, and ward layouts throughout the building.

The building is a large area of accommodation, approximately 80,000sqm. By breaking down the functions into separate but related parts, with significant set-backs at levels 2 and 5, we have reduced the scale of the building so that a suitable, human, scale is achieved.

A simple palette of materials is proposed for the external envelope. The materials palette includes terracotta, timber, glazing, ETFE pillows, concrete, painted metal cores and metal louvres.

Controlled use of colour within the façade will be applied to aid wayfinding. The facade materials are organised by vertical elements to break up the mass of the building and reflect the rhythm of the structural grid. Structure and servicing requirements are allowed to inform the architectural language, resulting in a building that is inviting, legible and expressive.