Project Examples : New Oakwood Medical & Eyecare Centres
Oakwood District Centre, Derby

Description of Schemes

Background

Since establishing the Practice in 1986, considerable experience and expertise has been gained in the Primary Healthcare sector, having designed some thirty Doctors Surgeries and Medical Centres throughout the UK ; Two local schemes have involved the phased establishment of a new Medical Centre and Eyecare Centre on difficult sloping green-field land alongside the District Shopping Centre at Oakwood, on the outskirts of Derby.

Scheme Briefs

The Doctors and Opticians both required a traditionally-detailed building with flexible design layouts, in order to accommodate phased expansion as the Oakwood Housing Estate residential population grew throughout the 1990's ; this was a difficult challenge requiring careful cut and fill land-profiling to the steeply-sloping green-field site, as shown on the following photograph taken from the District Centre Car Park, with the Eyecare Centre to the front lower right of the Medical Centre behind :-

Medical Centre

The initial Surgery building accommodated two GP's Consulting Rooms on a single-storey format, with two blanked-off end elevations and a substantial open gable-ended roof void over to facilitate future expansion ; the building was completed in 1990 at a cost of £75,000.

The following Phase 1 Surgery Exterior Photographs were taken from the District Shopping Centre and approach Road Frontage, for comparison with later Phase 2 similar views :-

Phase 2 Alterations and Extensions were carried-out in 1993 at a cost of £110,000, and included three further GP's Consulting Rooms, Nurse / Health Visitors Office, an enlarged Treatment Room, Waiting & Administration Areas, together with a new enclosed Entrance Porch at Ground Floor ; Practice Staff Rooms are accommodated in the extended open hipped roof void over at First Floor, with roof-lights providing natural daylight throughout.

The following External Perspective Views were generated from the 3-dimensional Computer Model for the Phase 2 Scheme :-

The following Phase 2 External Photographs were taken from similar positions to the previous Phase 1 Scheme views for comparison, together with Ground Floor and First Floor Staff Administration Rooms :-

Eyecare Centre

The initial design solution for the newly-founded ophthalmic opticians envisaged a two-storey 45-degree L-shaped masonry structure with mono-pitched roofs and a glazed rear stair-well cut into the steeply sloping grassed embankment ; the following early sketch external views were prepared to help describe the scheme concept to all concerned :-

The First Phase construction was completed in 1994 at a cost of £75,000, including comprehensive internal bespoke fixtures and fittings designed as an integral part of the extremely tightly-planned and compact building fabric.

The following Phase 1 photographs show the main front and rear external elevations, together with views of the display areas :-

The Phase 2 Alterations and Extensions were carried-out in 1997 at a cost of £42,000, and included two further Eye Test Rooms, an enlarged Display Area and new Waiting Area ; all similarly fitted-out with matching fixtures and accommodated in a mirrored lean-to rear two-storey extension to marry with the existing structure.

The following External Photographs show side and rear views of the latest Extension for comparison with the previous initial Phase 1 Scheme Photo's :-