The new Jubilee Gardens Primary Care Centre and Library is the result of a partnership between Ealing Council and Ealing PCT, replacing two existing buildings on adjacent sites and creating a unique combination of healthcare services and a local community facility on one site.
The centre is now a larger and more flexible building with accommodation for 3 GP practices, treatment rooms and minor surgery, audiology, health visitor and district nurse services as well as the library. The two spaces merge together seamlessly creating a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The spacious, two-storey, glazed entrance gives access to both services whilst still allowing them to function independently offering patients the opportunity to combine a doctors appointment with a library visit or use the services separately. The integration of these facilities into a ‘one-stop-shop’ provides a diversity of services with easy access for local residents.
The design provides a community focused building surpassing functionality and offering a patient-centred environment. The patient journey was key to the design, the team carefully considered the outside approach, quality of waiting spaces and ease of wayfinding. With the changing nature of healthcare, the building was designed to adapt to future uses with larger rooms allowing spaces to be used for a range of services.
The building is situated in a quiet surburban cul-de-sac, forming the park approach. It is fully integrated into the fabric of its surroundings whilst maintaining high levels of privacy and dignity for patients. The design challenge for this building was to balance a larger scale with a more human scale for patients and the suburban context. This was achieved by breaking down the bulk of the building through changing materials along elevations and setting back the second floor of the Centre. The elevations and materials are sympathetic to the local surroundings. The brick and copper coloured cladding echo the materials of the former library building. Externally, the building aims to distinguish itself from neighbouring buildings, providing a recognisably non-residential building with civic presence whilst respecting the local area. Landscape areas provide privacy to patient rooms and a garden space with full height glazing and doors leading directly out. New trees have been planted to the front of the site, creating an avenue of trees that corresponds with landscaping of the park and act as a buffer to the housing opposite.
The sustainability strategy is focused on maximising the use of natural ventilation using a carefully designed window arrangement allowing daytime natural ventilation and night-time cooling of the exposed concrete slab. Renewable energy is provided through a biomass boiler providing a proportion of the building’s heating needs. The building achieved a NEAT rating of ‘Excellent’.
