Guest User | Login / Register

What is WIDN

The World Interior Design Network is the leading global resource for the interior design industry brought to you by World Market Intelligence, one of the world's foremost publishers of interior design information

Find out more

Product Inspiration

Browse our interior design product showcase, one of the largest and fastest growing collections of premium interior design products on the Internet.

Find out more

Industry Research

World Market Intelligence publishes in-depth strategic intelligence reports, drawing on in-depth primary and secondary research, proprietary databases and high quality analysis from our expert teams.

Find out more

Public Sector Focus

Published: 12-Mar-2009

Gone are the days when public sector meant dull and utilitarian. As these case studies show, the public realm is the new arena for appealing and problem-solving design.

Related Image

Suppliers to this sector

When the commercial market goes flat as a pancake, there’s only one direction left for new business hounds to go in – and that’s public. Although by no means immune to the recession themselves, Government and local authority work has never looked so appealing, whether it is new council offices, a school extension or new healthcare complex.

Unlike the private sector, this is not likely to suddenly dry up – in education alone for example, the Government is committed to spending £21.9bn on the school estate between 2008 and 2011. Wise firms will already have built up a track record in public-sector work at the same time as enjoying the great bounty of recent commercial projects. And those that have will know that unlike as recently as five or 10 years ago, public sector doesn’t have to mean second-class design – you can no longer recognise a local authority office just by looking at the spec.

The guilt factor in providing decent public sector workplaces is finally showing signs of easing – local authorities and Government quangos appear to have learned lessons from the commercial world and have finally realized that if you want to attract and retain decent staff, you need to give them the right quality of environment in which to do their job. And as Sheppard Robson found when designing new offices for Newham Council, it is possible to create design-led, high-quality environments that also offer pragmatic, space-saving solutions and don’t cost the earth.

Despite its unglamorous reputation, public sector doesn’t have to mean dull. Below, we case study such tough challenges as designing bully-deterrent school toilets, violence-proof hospital furniture, and introducing hotdesking into council offices.

HEALTHCARE – Norbury Ward

Client: St George’s Stafford, South Staffordshire

and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Designer: Nightingale Associates

Contractor: J & S Seddon (Building) Ltd

Norbury Ward day room was a depressing place, not only for the 16 men who had been sectioned there, but also for staff. It looked unloved, says Nightingale senior designer Georgia Burt, with dated patterned carpet, plastic gardenstyle furniture, and no proper delineation of spaces for different activities.

Following a £80,000 makeover including a £35,000 King’s Fund grant, it’s now unrecognisable, with comfy, proper furniture, and an uplifting, colourful environment. Staff now apply to work on the ward, says Burt, and the project was shortlisted in the Building Better Healthcare Awards, with the new furniture being highly commended.

After consultations with staff and residents, Burt first sorted out the layout, positioning a screen near the door to give some privacy as people go on and off the ward. There are clusters of easy and dining chairs, with carpeting for sitting areas and linoleum for dining and pool table areas. “We identified zones in the space to bring back some sort of personality,” she says.

The next big intervention was the new chairs, which replaced the plastic furniture that had been used through concerns that conventional furniture might cause injuries if thrown. Burt worked with Knightsbridge Furniture to adapt an easy chair in its range, making it weightier to make it harder to lift, strengthening the joints and specifying it in hardwearing leather and sustainable timber. Pattern was avoided, since it can be a problem for people with psychosis.

“The chairs are £460 a piece but you’re giving a valuable object to a unit where people don’t feel valued,” says Burt, who adds that this investment has gone a very long way. “The chairs are being vandalised less, and staff aren’t being hurt and are taking less time off.”

Burt advocates working collaboratively with manufacturers – otherwise there’s a danger that some furniture suppliers might treat the NHS as a dumping ground for ranges that don’t sell, she says.

Artwork by residents is displayed on one wall painted an enlivening red. The others are white, with more colour provided by LED roof lighting, which changes colour in a rainbow sequence throughout the day and has proved therapeutic for residents. So far there has been very little vandalism – and a noticeable pride in the new environment.

“Service users are even emptying out their ash trays because they want to keep it nice,” says Burt. “They can’t believe they deserve it.”

This article was first published in FX Magazine www.fxmagazine.co.uk