UCLH Phase 5

UCLH Phase 5, London, UK UCLH Phase 5, currently under construction, marks the latest phase of the hospital’s main campus regeneration, providing a specialist facility for ear, nose and throat medicine. The architectural goal is to create a stimulating sensual environment that promotes well-being and health. Traditionally, such buildings are planned with clinical spaces at the facade and waiting areas at the core. Phase 5, by contrast, inverts this organisation with waiting areas on the street facade set in a range of bay windows. The form and detail of these bays offers a contemporary reinterpretation of the bays of the adjacent 19th century mansion blocks. Perforated brick screens to the south of each bay address considerations of heritage, environment and privacy. The facade reflects the building’s internal planning with a generous ‘base’ denoting arrival and reception areas, the main ‘body’ with clinical areas and a recessed ‘roof’ providing a landscaped garden for both staff and patients. Vertical circulation is arranged on the northern apex of the site. Here, the architectural language of perforated brick screens is reinterpreted to provide shading to more generously scaled communal waiting areas.