Barbara Weiss Architects (BWA) has completed the extension and renovation of a redundant 1990s office block into the new Wokingham Medical Centre, to create the largest single-site GP practice in the UK.
The 1,600 sq m NHS building, provides new facilities for up to 16 GPs (currently home to 11), and five nurses, along with a new pharmacy and flexible medical suite. The relocation from two separate sites, now occupies a site in the heart of Wokingham's town centre in Berkshire, a key area for the continued regeneration of the town.
The brief was simply to accommodate a large number of patients (the centre will serve a catchment area of up to 32,000) and GPs within a calm, non-insitutionalised environment. BWA substantially extended the existing building and added a penthouse conference room on the roof.? Design features include bespoke joinery used to create an intimate suite of consulting areas throughout the building and 'clinical' examination areas at the rear. The use of Intelligent Glass glazing on the front elevation at first and second floors, provides touch-of-a-button privacy to the consulting rooms behind.
BWA began the design process with the complete strip-out of the existing steel frame and cavity wall office building and remodeled the space to meet a number of key objectives including need for additional floor space for new services and clinics, and additional consulting and treatment rooms.
To meet government ambitions on the provision of more care locally, the new building also needed to allow for the co-location of a pharmacy, physiotherapy and other services, whilst comfortably catering for the likely increase in patient numbers, a predicted additional 9-10,000, from 4,000 newly built homes in the area.
Along with a number of successful alterations to the existing built fabric, BWA designed the integration of a new third floor to accommodate a pavilion, housing a meeting and conference space. The third floor extension is also set back from the northeast elevation and opens out onto a spacious terrace.
The Wokingham Medical Centre was completed on site in just over a year and is now fully operational for the public use.
Dr Vipan Bhardwaj, lead client GP said:
"Barbara Weiss Architects' approach to design has enabled us to deliver for Wokingham a beautiful, contemporary and innovative building. The practice has shown beyond doubt that medical spaces can be fit for purpose without being institutional, clinical or bland. Wokingham Medical Centre has warmth, character and, with its lighting and palette of materials and colours, is a building that is calm and reassuring".
