State-of-the-art palliative care unit at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in the running for top architecture award
A £7.25m palliative care unit near Llantrisant that brings people near the end of their lives closer to nature is in the running for a top architecture award.
The Y Bwthyn NGS Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Unit at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital has been shortlisted for the Health and Wellbeing category in the prestigious AJ Architecture Awards, which happen on Wednesday 17 November.
The unit was designed by KKE Architects and opened its doors in September 2019.
It offers inpatient, outpatient and day palliative care to people with cancer and other conditions with eight inpatient beds available.
KKE Architects’ design, which was created working with staff and patients, means the unit offers a calm, welcoming, and comfortable environment for people with incurable illnesses and their loved ones.
Architect Phil Kavanagh said: “KKE Architects is proud to have been involved with/help orchestrate the creation of this highly important and impactful project. It is centred around people, enhancing the experiences of patients, relatives, clinical professionals and loved ones.
“Created by a highly collaborative team of clients, designers, artists, engineers and contractors. It is great that it is now receiving the recognition of being shortlisted for this highly respected national award.”
The unit is decorated sensitively with artwork that has the theme of bringing the outdoors in, which was chosen in workshops with patients.
Each patient bedroom has doors designed so a patient’s bed can be taken outside onto a screened terrace if they wish to go outdoors.
It was largely funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and its charity partner National Garden Scheme, who each gave £2.5m towards it. The additional funding came from the Welsh Government and Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.
Richard Pugh, Head of Partnerships at Macmillan Cancer Support: “We are thrilled the architects have been shortlisted for an architecture award for their work on the Y Bwthyn NGS Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Unit.
“It really is a special place that offers a calming environment to people nearing the end of their lives and Macmillan is proud to be involved in funding the unit along with our charity partner the National Garden Scheme, the health board and the Welsh Government.”
George Plumptre, Chief Executive of the National Garden Scheme, said: “Congratulations to our architects KKE for their nomination for this prestigious award.
“We have always been delighted that the architectural design of the unit gives the eight bedrooms individual private terrace gardens which add so much to the environment offered to patients and their families.”
Emrys Elias, Chair for Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB said: “We are very proud of the Y Bwthyn unit at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and are equally grateful to the architects who created this tranquil environment for patients receiving palliative care.
“The nomination of this award highlights just how important joint working between staff and patients can be in creating this state-of-the-art calming facility, not only for our patients, but also for our staff who go above and beyond every day to ensure our palliative patients are able to enjoy these beautiful surroundings.”
For support, information or a chat, call Macmillan free on 0808 808 0000 or visit macmillan.org.uk.
For more information about the National Garden Scheme visit www.ngs.org.uk
