Lancaster, United Kingdom

Designed by John McAslan & Partners, the £41 ­millionHealth Innovation One is a focal point where stakeholders from the wider health economy – academics, industry, health and care providers, the voluntary sector, and local authorities – can come together to improve health, in line with the aims of the UK’s industrial strategy and the NHS long-term plan.

This project was short-listed for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Health Innovation One (HIO) is a ground-breaking new center dedicated to training the next generation of medics while developing cross-sector, multi-disciplinary collaborations with the wider healthcare community.

The state-of-the-art building, which opened in September 2020, offers facilities for the training of best practice medical procedures, as well as an inspirational and dynamic space for research, collaboration, and innovation in health and care. It is set to lend a strong, visible profile for health and medicine at Lancaster University, and raises the bar in learning environments for the health and care sector in the UK and globally.

Carefully co-designed with the University’s Faculty of Health and Medicine, to bring people out of their offices and promote research, the 8,500 sqm Health Innovation One building provides a new purpose-built academic facility for the University’s Medical School and Division of Health Research, alongside co-location and incubation space for businesses.

The building is the focal point for the University’s new health innovation campus, also master-planned, which will bring together businesses, the NHS, students, and academics from a broad range of multi-disciplinary backgrounds. It will also carry strong links with healthcare settings within the local community.

Located within a landscape setting, the main Health Innovation One entrance is accessed via a covered colonnade and landscaped plaza and opens onto a welcoming, light-filled reception. This main arrival space features a café space and leads onto a triple-height atrium, housing an open-seated lecture theatre for teaching and events.

Leading off from this central gathering point is the main ‘street’, naturally lit via a sequence of vertical lightwells overhead. The ‘street’, in turn, opens onto a variety of spaces that can be used flexibly for teaching, business, and study. The ‘street’ concept creates a transparent, industrious, and animated environment, and lends itself to incidental meetings and interactions, promoting interdisciplinary working relationships and collaboration.

Specialist teaching spaces, adjacent to the main atrium, include a simulated hospital ward environment, where practical training of medical procedures can be tested and demonstrated, and an interactive digital ‘bay’ for anatomical studies.

Health Innovation One also includes a dedicated Business Lounge and Innovation Lab, to accommodate various organizations working in the health sector, including NHS agencies and private sector innovators developing new health and wellbeing products and services, to work in and visit. Interspersed throughout the building are informal seating areas for ad-hoc working and meetings to take place.

Health Innovation One is designed to nestle into its landscape of rolling hills, mature trees, and lush greenery, and incorporates its natural surroundings. In response to the topography, the main length of the building is sited along a natural plateau in the landscape, sloping steeply upwards at the south. Here the building makes the most of the existing tree canopies to provide an uplifting backdrop, and views, as well as provide protection from the southern sun.

Architecturally, large strata planes in the building’s elevation emphasize the strong horizontals in the landscape, overlaid by vertical planes that emphasize the surrounding linear tree lines. The building’s natural material palette includes cast stone, Corten steel, and timber on the exterior, and warm wood paneling on the interior. Large expanses of glazing optimize natural light into the building and views out onto the landscape, while deep-set elevations ensure solar protection. External perforated screens, CNC cut to represent light refracted through a tree canopy, provide additional solar shading, and added depth and animation to the layered and textural facade.

Fitted furniture within the interior scheme are designed in subdued tones, carrying the emphasis on the building’s natural setting through to the interior, and emphasizing the focus on calm and wellbeing throughout the design. Careful consideration was given to the wellbeing of visitors, with the building designed to maximize natural daylight, fresh air circulation, and connection to the landscape.

Furthermore, the holistic building’s “Excellent” BREEAM standard is a measure of its environmental credentials. Professor Andy Schofield, Vice-Chancellor, Lancaster University, said: “The Health Innovation Campus is a project of strategic importance for Lancaster University. It will provide a cutting-edge facility for the medical students, a home for the Division of Health Research, and an exciting innovation hub, where academics will work with cross-sector partners on systems and products which improve health outcomes.

“The strategy for the new campus has been developed in line with the aims of the UK’s Industrial Strategy and the NHS long-term plan and fits in with Lancaster’s civic commitment to its region. “The University has been working on this important initiative for a number of years now, and I am delighted to see that Health Innovation One is now complete, at a time when working together on projects aimed at improving health is more important than ever.”

The £41m project is funded by Lancaster University with support from Lancashire Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal and the European Regional Development Fund, owing to its huge potential to attract new jobs in the region and lend critical support to local businesses and communities.

Project: Health Innovation One
Architects: John McAslan + Partners
Client: University Partnerships Programme
Contractor: BAM Construction Ltd
Photographers: Hufton + Crow Elevation
Sections & Drawings: John McAslan + Partners