01. Listen
World-famous Great Ormond Street Hospital required a state-of-the-art facility for private patients from the UK and children from overseas requiring specialist treatments unavailable in their own countries. Doorsets, panelling and workstations need to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing, in keeping with the wider environment, incorporating an important part of the brief in that patients and parents appreciate a more ‘lived in’ experience. An additional consideration was the young age of the clients in the hospital, which was taken into consideration on all aspects of the planning.
O2. Plan
Planning incorporated the ‘lived in’ environment with the usual safety measures required in areas where children are present. Specialist door units (with Sentinel), supplied previously by Leaderflush Shapland and now owned by Integrated Doorsets, were to be used wherever patients came into contact with the doors, preventing the entrapment of inquisitive fingers, particularly in the hanging edge. As GOSH is primarily a children’s hospital, design considerations included integrated blinds, designed at full length to allow visibility of a child if they are behind an opening door. These blinds utilise a handle design that makes them easy to operate yet won’t damage the units if young hands continually turn or play with them. Another part of the brief was for doorsets that were damage resistant, an issue that had arisen from previous experience. Overall, the environment puts patients at ease and is resilient, whilst not overly clinical in aesthetics.

03. Build
Fully integrated doorsets were designed and manufactured by Integrated Doorsets and featured 316 grade stainless architectural hardware. Entrance doorsets were auto opening, doors were restrained with maglocks and all cylinders were master keyed with escape locks on patient bedrooms allowing room doors to be locked externally should a room need to be, whilst allowing easy exit from somebody in the room.
Sentinel doorsets with up to 60 minutes fire resistance were built and supplied with veneer to line through, which is standard across pairs of doors. Feature inlays, which were also lined through with adjacent wall panelling and adjacent doorsets were used.
The Pre-view privacy vision panels were incorporated in the door and were designed so that both the upper and lower half of the door can be viewed ensuring that small children could also see through and could also be seen if ‘hidden’ behind the door. The inclusion of these vision panels also assist in meeting the requirements under the Equality Act, to enable clear vision between 500 and 1500mm. Stainless steel angle edge protectors were fitted to meeting stiles of pairs, for added protection to the leaf edges.
04. Deliver
Challenges for the successful delivery of such an important project included issues such as uneven floors. Thus it was necessary to create a single datum line, which all doorsets were manufactured and installed against, in order to ensure that the feature inlays within the doors and panels all lined through with each other, ensuring no visual discrepancies along the entire length of the corridors.
Doorsets, panelling and workstations need to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing, to ensure patients and parents experience a more ‘lived in’ environment.