HLM Architects’ design brief for the £70m Queen’s Centre for Oncology and Haematology at Castle Hill Hospital was to create a sustainable and life-affirming UK Centre of Excellence that would blend with and complement its stunning environment.The client, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, had a vision that the completed unit would be ‘a healing environment’ and from the outset it was established that in stark contrast to the clinical ambience of many hospitals, the new unit should imbue a sense of tranquillity and general psychological wellbeing. The project represented one of the largest capital investments in the region in the past 100 years, and the Trust had fought hard to obtain outline planning permission for the site: a greenfield location adjacent to the main hospital.
