Evelina Children's Hospital
Client:
Guy's & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
Year of Completion:
2005
Architect/Designer: Hopkins Architects
Architect/Designer: Hopkins Architects
A stunning new link canopy between an existing Victorian St Thomas’ hospital building and a new, state of the art children’s hospital, designed by Hopkin’s Architects, was conceived and realised by Architen Landrell. The Canopy design carries through the design ethic for unusual and innovative forms with ultra careful attention to detail and high quality materials.
The provision of a walkway canopy at the new Evelina Hospital for children adds a fun and innovative touch to the modern and child-focused building. The umbrella-like fabric walkway takes its form from two undulating beams spanning between buildings and was specifically patterned and fabricated to maximise the visual interest envisaged by the Designer.
Clad with pure white and highly translucent Gore Tenara fabric, it provides a covered walkway between the adjacent buildings and demarks the main entrance to the new hospital. The Evelina, which has been dubbed ‘a hospital unlike any other’, is part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Architen Landrell created and installed the suitably impressive entrance canopy structure, an important aspect of a scheme that the public voted as its favourite British-designed building to have opened in the last year.
Polling a staggering 49% of the vote, the hospital beat off stiff competition from five other buildings, including the winner of this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize, the New Area Terminal, Barajas Airport, Madrid. Being a structure that both extends the new and complements the old with which it interacts, the tensile fabric structure is undoubtedly a success and has gained praise from Users and Clients alike.
