Thomas Matthews – Royal Papworth Hospital

Royal Papworth Hospital

NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge

Royal Papworth Hospital is one of the world’s leading cardiothoracic hospitals and the UK’s main heart and lung transplant centre. The new building is busy, with a regular flow of staff, patients, and visitors. Our site wide orientation and identity helps patients orient themselves in this circular building and provides clear identification for essential moments like nurse bases and reception desks.

What we did

Wayfinding & Environmental

Taking inspiration from nature

We were commissioned to create a wayfinding ‘umbrella strategy’ that brings together all the artist commissions within the building. To begin with we set out to understand how visitors navigate the hospital grounds. Crucially, we knew that our designs and creative approach had to meet the NHS standards and guidelines for signage every step of the way. Using the architect’s concept of the “living building” as our starting point, we researched into nature’s ability to improve recovery times in hospital. Research into parts of the human body became the foundations for our concept after discovering that the frequency of the human brain is similar to magnetic pulse the earth. This formed the inspiration for our concept, using the natural pulses of the brain, a heartbeat, our breath, the sea, the land and the earth as a basis to create patterns.

Creating patterns from a heartbeat

Each of the 6 floors within the hospital, from the basement to level 5, have their own aesthetic according to the theme allocated to them. Once we allocated each floor a theme, we worked out an algorithm to create a common unit of size for each natural rhythm, creating a pattern for each one. This system enables visitors and patients to visually identify where they are in the building. In this way, the wayfinding system is embedded into the building, functioning like the pulse of the human body: not always obvious but essential.

Turning our creative concept into a unique ‘umbrella’ wayfinding system

We worked closely with HOK architects to develop a sensitive colour palette and a smooth wayfinding system to help patients and visitors navigate the building. Our orientation strategy created accent points which were complemented with a detailed, directional signage system. This supports the aim of the project to create effective, integrated wayfinding that improves patient experience.

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