The pioneering New Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow has won this year’s Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award.

The hospital is the first dedicated ambulatory care and diagnostic facility in Scotland and is delivering healthcare in a whole new way. Medical tests and consultations are carried out on the same day and surgical patients who in the past would have needed an overnight stay can now home the same day. It is treating around 400,000 patients a year.

‘Patient first’ is the hospital’s ethos, and this is what inspired its design. Patients and visitors enter a glazed arcade filled with natural light. The building is designed to be easy to navigate. It has vertical circulation at the centre, with a bold, full-height staircase tower.

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Reiach and Hall Architects have created reassuring and calm spaces throughout. Quiet waiting areas overlook larch-clad internal courtyards and artworks are integrated throughout the building. Staff enjoy bright offices and a canteen with a roof terrace commanding views of the Campsie Fells.

The structure of the building is simple: a four-storey north treatment block and three-storey linear south consulting block, linked by the arcade. This helps the hospital work efficiently. Its steel frame construction with lightweight internal partitioning makes adaptation easy. The hospital has an excellent energy efficiency rating, and was completed on time and on budget.

CABE chief executive Richard Simmons said that the winning hospital shows the enormous value to the community of investing in high-quality design.

The Prime Minister’s Award is part of the British Construction Industry Awards and is sponsored by CABE, the Office for Government Commerce and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

(GK)