award winning architects

Wednesday, 26 January 2011 00:00

Skypad Teenage Cancer Trust Unit, Cardiff

2010 Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RIBA) Award – Skypad Teenage Cancer Trust Unit

The Skypad Teenage Cancer Trust Unit, Cardiff was presented with its prestigious RIBA award on Wednesday 22 September. Stride Treglown were executive architects on this project, taking ORMS’ initial design through detailed design and construction phases.

Every day six young people from across the UK between the ages of 13 and 24 are diagnosed with cancer. Usually placed on a children’s ward or with elderly patients, young people often feel extremely isolated when facing a cancer diagnosis. Teenage Cancer Trust builds specialist units in NHS hospitals where young people with cancer are treated with others their own age, in an e nvironment suited to their needs. The Skypad Teenage Cancer Trust unit is an example of architecture at its best and was built on stilts between the adult and paediatric oncology centres. It includes all the usual features of a Teenage Cancer Trust unit such as a chill-out zone, access to media facilities such as the internet, TV and music, dining area, patients kitchen and parents room with kitchenette.

The building is the first of its kind in Wales and provides a centre of clinical excellence for the provision of inpatient and outpatient cancer care for young people between the ages of 14-25.

Martin Knight, Jury Chair for RIBA Awards in 2010 in Wales, said: “This extraordinary project can take its rightful place in a series of landmark healthcare buildings and uses sensitive, humane design to improve the physical and emotional environment for patient care".

Skypad Teenage Cancer Trust Unit, Cardiff