New Simmons House Building
Launch slideshow
The Simmons House rebuild programme commenced in 2001. A full business case was approved for the development of state of the art premises. The unit was built with public money and designed by Studio 4 Design Architects. After a two and half year building programme, the unit was commissioned in July 2009.
Extensive discussion and consultation about the design took place over a number of years; Simmons House staff, patients and ex-patients were all able to contribute to the process. We wanted to create a warm, comfortable, containing and flexible building that could cater for the needs of significantly unwell young people in North London for the next 50 years.
The overall shape and design of the building owes much to ideas around models of parenting. There is a semi-enclosed space - a courtyard - surrounded on four sides by offices, living areas and the classroom. The enclosure extends from the main accommodation like an embracing arm around the courtyard. However this is neither an arm that leaves the unit too open and uncontained, nor a stifling limb that allows no freedom of movement. There is a purposeful gap in the
courtyard and this is marked by the main group room for staff on the first floor of the new building and the main living area for young people in the house. Views are possible between the two spaces so that when staff are in a ward round or meeting, the young people can still see them!
There are numerous unexpected views throughout the building as a result of extensive and planned glazing; this is not at the expense of the necessary privacy needed in an adolescent unit. The balance between the public and more confidential spaces within the unit was considered carefully. We were keen to design a space that allowed privacy – all 10 bedrooms have their own en suite facilities – that fostered responsibility; but also allowed site lines, multiple views and perspectives: across the courtyard, between corridors and floor levels. We believed that the young people at Simmons House would benefit from this, in a literal sense by being able to see a key-worker or case-manager through layers of glass, but additionally as a space where new and different views and experiences might be possible.
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The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building -
The new Simmons House building
