Oakhaven Hospice on the edge of Lymington offers a wide range of services to care and support individuals and their families, both in the hospice and within their homes. Their vision is to make every moment matter by providing excellence in end-of-life care and promoting the best quality of life for people living with life-limiting conditions and their families through provision of specialist services combined with support, education, research, partnership working and collaboration with others who share an interest in end-of-life care.
The brief was for 2 new buildings within the Oakhaven campus to allow the hospice to grown and to better meet the needs of the community. The first part of the project is a new IPU in-patient unit allowing the hospice to provide improved accommodation and care for its patients. The second part of the project is for a new leading education and research centre for the teaching of nursing practices, the education pavilion.
The new IPU in-patient unit will offer new en suite care bedrooms for end-of-life palliative care, designed to meet the very latest standards of care and support, allowing patients to live a better quality of life while resident, and giving staff the space and facilities to offer exemplary care on site. The bedrooms are designed as calm spaces with a sense of home where family and friends will feel welcome. Ground floor bedrooms will open onto shared terraces, allowing residents the opportunity for fresh outdoor air and to make the most of the gardens.
At first floor there are staff facilities along with much needed flexible office space and storage for medical supplies and a direct internal link to the existing buildings on site. The second floor will offer new open plan office space and conference room for staff involved with outreach community care.
The floor plate is adaptable to allow for potential expansion of care provision in future and the building will allow the decanting of patients from other areas of the hospice while those areas are refurbished.
The education pavilion will offer a main flexible teaching space for up to 40 trainees or delegates along with café, secluded breakout spaces, and smaller more private meeting spaces. The aspiration is to allow Oakhaven to continue as a centre of excellence in end-of-life care, providing an environment for the sharing of knowledge both regionally and nationally in partnership with Southampton University.
The pavilion is designed with the wellbeing of staff and trainees in mind. The entrance hall is double height with a broad stair drawing visitors upstairs to the main teaching and social spaces. Under the stairs is a secluded library / wobble room to escape the crowds, with intimate views onto planting and gardens.
