Routledge Integrating Care: The architecture of the comprehensive health centre

This book provides a timely review of the contemporary interpretation of the ‘comprehensive health centre’, a building type that was originally advocated by health reformers in the UK in the first half of the twentieth century. The book discusses the development of this idea, the failure under the NHS to apply the idea in practice in the second half of the century and the recent emergence, in all four regions of the UK, of comprehensive health centres providing a wide range of health and social services, often linked to other community facilities. A review of the latest developments in comprehensive health centre design forms the core of the book in the form of detailed case studies of ten exemplary recent projects. Generously illustrated in full colour the case studies include plans, diagrams, photographs and analytical text, providing the reader with detailed information about a range of design approaches. Following devolution, NHS health policies in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have begun to diverge and the role of the comprehensive health centre in the current health service of each country is assessed. Aimed at professionals, healthcare facilities providers and policy makers, the book also considers the opportunities for and obstacles facing the further development of the comprehensive health centre as an integral part of the infrastructure of the NHS in the future. Review 'A health centre should be the hub of a community, linking to everything people need. Here are design ideas for how they should look and feel, to breathe new life into an inspiring vision that began life before the NHS. At a time when 'integration' is what the NHS needs, after the fragmentation and competition of recent years, here are bold and unifying design solutions for the next generation of policy-makers.' - Polly Toynbee, Guardian Columnist 'Impressively clear and well-argued, Integrating Care shows how a genuinely new type of building – long imagined, but with precious few precedents - has emerged in Britain in the last fifteen years out of collaborations between architects, doctors, politicians and medical administrators. Particularly valuable is the insight into the responses to the differing circumstances of the NHS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The buildings described are encouraging evidence for architecture’s potential to enhance wellbeing and to shape people’s expectations.' - Adrian Forty, Professor Emeritus of Architectural History, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL About the Author Justin De Syllas trained at the AA and the Bartlett Schools of Architecture in London. After working for a number of leading architectural practices and teaching for several years he joined Avanti Architects in 1985, where he was a director for 26 years. He acted as lead consultant for the Barrhead Health and Care Centre in Scotland and was the Avanti director in charge of the development, with Kennedy FitzGerald Architects, of designs for the Grove Health and Wellbeing Centre in Belfast and Portadown Health Centre, both in Northern Ireland. These, alongside seven projects by other architects, are featured as case studies in the book.