EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Designing a Health Living Centre, Bristol

Designing a Health Living Centre, Bristol

Introduction

The case details the creation of the Wellspring Health Living centre – multipurpose building, built with natural materials, incorporating a multitude of artist-led community-designed features.

Problem

The area the centre is located Barton Hill, in Bristol's New Deal for Communities area, was visually dominated by tower blocks and concrete. The centre was designed not just to address every aspect of residents' health needs, but to also inspire their creativity and positive sense of place.

Description

The design of the centre has incorporated the Arts, environment, health and community care all together under one roof. Aspects of the design of the building have been artist-led, involving artwork created by members of the community, doctors and others. Design has been an important aspect of the building.

When all tenants move in, residents will have access to:

NHS doctors
a dentist
art facilities
complementary health therapies
health visitors and midwives
social services
alcohol and drugs advice and support
a crèche

Approach

The development went through a series of stages over a number of years including:

1999 concept emerged,
2000 residents and agencies publish delivery plan for the NDC,
2001 NDC outline approval given to appoint architects,
2002 planning approval given and the NDC agrees application for the centre to cost £3.44 million in capital costs,
2003 the artists designs are approved and work starts,
2004 the doctors surgery moves in,
Nov 2004 official opening.

Results

The case study reported a number of do's and don'ts learnt from the project experience. These include:

celebrate important milestones, community arts events can involve hard-to reach groups
clarify maintenance costs and arrangements in advance
appoint a dedicated project manager with relevant experience for the duration of the project
if you intend to get the community involved in contributing art works to the building, ensure enough time is given for planning and co-ordinating this
strike a balance between the expectations of a community and the reality of a building project.

Contact info

Communities at Heart NDC, Bristol
Phone: +44 (0) 117 903 9097
info@ndcbristol.co.uk

Project start date

//1999

Links

Visit the Yorkshire Futures website

Download the 'Designing a Health Living Centre, Bristol' Report (PDF, Eng, 37 KB)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy

Keywords

Social inclusion & integration, Urban environment