Evelina's Childrens Hospital by Michael Hopkins
Hugh Pearman from Nov 17 2005 Sunday Times writes: Hospitals are the buildings that architecture forgot. They are quick-turnaround human repair shops, driven by targets set by politicians and accountants. Despite decades of firm evidence that a well-designed, agreeable hospital environment actually helps people to get better quicker, how many examples do you know like that?
So it is good to find a new one that is streets ahead of the bog-standard product, yet costs the same. The £60m Evelina childrens' hospital in London, by architect Sir Michael Hopkins, actually manages to raise your spirits. It's one of the best new hospitals to arrive for quite some time, costs the same per square foot as your average public-finance-initiative nightmare and is designed by architects who have never previously done a hospital at all. You can't help thinking there's a lesson in this for all those who commission healthcare buildings.
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