Description

Described as ‘C’ shaped in plan, the five-storey concrete framed building is made up of three straight sided blocks, enclosing a central garden.  The public areas, which include specialised consultation and treatment facilities, are at ground and first floor level with the upper floors housing the administration. 

Ground floor layout

The ground floor has a larger footprint than the floors above, with a single storey extending into the central space and wrapping around the garden to form an irregular circle.  This reduces the scale of the building for children playing in the garden, while the trees form a canopy over their heads obscuring the mass of the upper levels from their view.  The roof of this extended ground-floor area is planted to provide another area of green.

Internal circulation

The walls around the central space are almost fully glazed, with windows giving views onto the garden areas and across into other parts of the building. This layout helps visitors (particularly children) find their way around.  Long internal corridors have been eliminated by designing access routes which follow the garden at both ground and first-floor levels. 

Vibrant colours are used to let users know where they are inside the building.  Each floor has a different colour scheme which is visible from the street and from the garden routes, with the colours set against the off-white rendering of the exterior and white interior partitions and columns.

Sustainable design

The centre has a number of energy saving measures including:

• natural ventilation and lighting from windows on all walls
• motion-sensitive lighting and cooling
• heating by a thermally active slab –pipes are cast into the middle of the concrete structure carrying either hot or cold water depending on the season (this is one of the first uses of the Batiso system in the UK).

Landscaping

The building is just outside the centre of Catford with the front façade running along the busy bus and lorry route of Rushey Green.  A narrow strip of grass and tall trees separates the pavement from the main road and provides a physical barrier from the traffic. 

This is also a visual link with the garden, separated from the pavement by a glazed screen which provides security but allows people to see into the inner spaces. 

The entrance is on the main street and leads directly from the pavement, through a glazed lobby, into the reception area where a single information desk provides the point of contact for the whole of the building.  

Cost

The cost of this traditionally-procured building is comparable to that of other new health care facilities - £8.45million for a total floor area of 4300 square metres (£1,965 per square metre).