Addenbrooke's Hospital and Cambridge Biomedical Campus

Addenbrooke's Hospital first opened on Trumpington Street, Cambridge in 1766, and began its move to its current site on the city's southern fringe in 1962. It has been expanding ever since and is now recognised as an Academic Health Science Centre for its combination of research, clinical care and education - it not only comprises a 1,100 bed NHS General Hospital with associated services, but also accommodates the Cambridge University Clinical School, Cancer Research UK, Medical Research Council (MRC) clinical research buildings, the Rosie Hospital, staff residences and other facilities.

But four decades of growth on a greenfield site south of the city centre had occurred without the benefit of an overall strategic or framework plan, while increasing demand resulting from a growing population, changing demographics, evolving NHS policy and clinical care models meant that this method of expansion was no longer feasible or sustainable.

It is within this context that we have produced a series of proposals, masterplans and built projects that work to ensure that the site's international status as a centre of excellence is maintained and enhanced.

To maximise the quality of the hospital environment, the masterplan brings an urbanism to the campus rarely seen in healthcare: high quality architecture, public spaces and landscape. Alongside clinical considerations we considered adjacencies, entrances, access, wayfinding and outdoor space. This holistic approach to the campus helps the hospital extract best value from its existing buildings while planning for future growth.

The masterplan begins by setting our a legible hierarchy of streets and spaces, which have become the underlying pattern for development. It works to define a relationship with the Biomedical Campus whereby Addenbrooke's and the Rosie Hospital have a highly distinctive identity within the overall site, but their success will be dependent on a strong and integrated relationship with the Biomedical Campus as a whole.

In recognition of its substantial size, a strong urban structure, which underpins the site's relationship with its local context and with Cambridge city centre, were imperative.

The patient journey is central to the concept. Ease of access, limited travel distance to point of use, clarity of wayfinding, and legibility are key components. Major circulation routes for the public, visitors and staff aim to connect across the hospital without any change of level and wayfinding is intuitive. Facilities management and servicing routes are planned to be segregated both vertically and horizontally from patient, visitor and staff circulation.

Our masterplanning work at Addenbrooke's gave us a strategic overview of the hospital's built environment and projected its requirements for the next 15 years. This led to the identification of two key elements: transport and energy, and the subsequent development of a dedicated multi-storey car park for the hospital. By consolidating an assortment of surface car parks into one single location, we were able to free useful plots across the hospital campus for future development. We also designed and achieved planning consent for a new energy centre, which has not yet been realised.

In 2016, we were again appointed but this time by the University, to consider four sites within the masterplan for future clinical and research use, including a major hub for neuroscience, and residential accommodation for hospital staff and medical students. In the interim, key moves such as the relocation of Astra Zeneca to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, has further reinforced the site's importance. And more than ten years after our initial commission we continue to be involved with the hospital's development at the heart of the Campus, with an ongoing masterplanning exercise to make best use of the NHS Trust's holdings. These strands of design work are helping to shape one of the UK's and Europe's leading life science clusters - a community in medicine research, learning and patient care.