Liverpool Royal Hospital Gardens

Status: On going

Location: Liverpool

Client: Liverpool University Hospitals NHS, Foundation Trust (LUHFT)

Design Team: BCA Landscape, BAM Construction, Ellis Williams Architects, Sutcliffe Civil & Structural Engineers, HoareLea

The proposal aims to create an inclusive family friendly place with emphasis on creating a healthy environment that incorporates playful spaces within natural systems. Designed and scaled to human proportions, the landscape will offer a positive immersive environment, promoting relaxation, gentle exercise and social interaction.

The Design Vision creates opportunities for dwell spaces across the site defined by soft and flowing areas of interesting multi-sensory planting throughout the year. Whilst still allowing for key direct routes, we have created ‘eddy areas’ off to the side to encourage people to slow down and immerse themselves in nature. These cosier spaces are immersive, but not completely enclosed or secluded environments. Places where nature connection activities can be facilitated but also a series of small spaces where visitors/patients/staff can go to decompress.
Smaller spaces where people can sit in a ‘softer’ urban environment and absorb possible bad news or de-stress from a busy day etc. (The greater the biodiversity, the greater the human well-being benefits!) These positive nature-pockets near to the hospital buildings allow quick and easy access and are near to facilities for any structured outdoor hospital ‘recovery’ activities to be delivered.

The proposal creates family and child friendly spaces with sensory planting, using natural materials to create play opportunities (e.g. balance bars/willow tunnels, water play/sand play etc). The design incorporates shaded seating and picnic areas within a semi-private footprint. Bound by low hedging or open fencing, the space offers physical containment to protect young children from adjacent traffic without compromising passive supervision or overall site visibility. These ‘human-scaled’ immersive green spaces connect up to create nature corridors and a series of complimentary dwell spaces for visitors/patients and staff across the health campus.