We hope to have proved how a little can go a long way at St Oswald’s Hospice in Gosforth, where their new Family Room & Garden has proved invaluable since opening in lockdown last year and being constantly used ever since.

With flexibility being the key to the design, the practice’s 15th project at St Oswalds, since the original design by Jane Darbyshire in 1987, for the award-winning hospice, has enabled families to visit loved ones throughout the pandemic in an environment that blurs the threshold between interior and exterior space and puts families and patients at ease.

JDDK Associate Director and Project Architect, Stuart Franklin, explains, “The genius of Jane Darbyshire’s original design was that the hospice could grow incrementally through the years, organically adding to the asymmetric plan and series of courtyards, as funding allowed. This Family Garden Room project is just the latest phase of an ongoing programme, which has allowed the hospice to not only grow, but also to adapt to changing needs and technology within healthcare. The building has been designed to be as flexible as possible to accommodate multiple functions; the main one allowing families to visit patients in a pleasant environment and although we obviously had no knowledge of the impending pandemic when we designed the building in 2019, it’s been in constant use as a Covid-safe environment throughout.”

The four month, £265,307 contract, completed by Applebridge Construction with GlenKemp as landscape architects, has doubled the size of the previous ‘Quiet Room’ and widened the corridors leading to it, allowing patient bed access. The new building’s roof provides a 3 metres overhang along two sides, creating a covered veranda. This is complemented by two sliding-folding patio doors which fold back providing uninterrupted views and access to the garden under the shelter of the roof canopy above.

The relandscaping of the garden also plays a key part in the overall design. The aim was to adapt the garden to provide an accessible ‘break-out’ space for patients, families and staff, offering opportunities to walk around the pond, sit and observe the wildlife or simply meet-up and chat with loved ones.

The scale of the new garden spaces were designed to compliment the scale of the surrounding buildings and the original garden. More intimate seating areas with smaller scale art works/lighting features are provided, with the garden being subdivided into subtle character areas to offer various levels of seclusion, privacy and opportunities for social interaction, highlighted by differing ground finishes. Mown paths are also formed within the wildflower lawn.

Stuart Franklin continued, “Bed-bound patients can access the garden and the family room and have the choice of meeting within a fully contained internal space, or sheltered external veranda environment, allowing maximum use of the room whatever the weather, throughout the year. During the various lockdowns, visitors were able to enter the garden without having to go through the main hospice, to see and talk to their relatives in a Covidsafe environment. Just by adding a relatively small incremental extension, the hospice now has multiple options for visiting families.”