The design for the new Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is aimed at providing a healing environment that will aid not only health professionals but especially the children and their families (Landsley, 2015). The new hospital includes an innovative Research and Education Centre that will benefit children and young adults from the U.K as well as from across the world (Alder Hey Children’s, 2015). It comprises of 279 beds, including 48 critical care beds for Intensive Care, High Dependency and Burns. 75% of the rooms are single and will accommodate both the patients and their relatives. The new layout will permit them to stay together and it will decrease the likelihood of their privacy being breached. All single rooms will have an in-suite and large windows that open out to a park (Smedley, 2013). The building comprised of six large, spacious and colourful wards with an outdoor play area. The wards were designed with the patients’ needs in mind. Departments such as A&E and theatres are located on the lower floors.  The atrium, which is every child’s dream come true, has a large tree-house and beams that resemble dinosaur ribs. Unlike other traditional healthcare facilities, the Alder Hey design embraces the thoughts and necessities of their patients. It stepped outside of the conventional barrier to deliver a … “hospital that felt so different to visiting a 'normal hospital', to look like a really exciting building as well as integrating with a park in a way that no other hospital has ever done ...” (Ward, Laing's 2013).

 

 

 According to James Chapman (2013), the design for the new hospital creates a connection between the hospital building and the planned park. In addition, patients, bed ridden included, can interact with nature which could benefit their recovery.

 

When talking about the connection between the park and the hospital Houghton states that: "when you come in from the car park into the main atrium you can immediately see where all the connections are internally in the hospital, but also the door opposite you is a glass one going straight out into the park. From every aspect as you walk around the hospital ... there's always this connection with the green space that says 'your part of it, go out and experience it or view it'."