HKS Architects

Client: Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Rachel Barlow

Midland Metropolitan University Hospital represents a landmark development and a catalyst for growth for the designated regeneration zone, between Birmingham and Smethwick. As part of the New Hospital Programme, the hospital sets a new standard for clinical healthcare design and is one of the most architecturally advanced hospitals in Europe. Bringing acute and emergency care from two separate hospitals into one centralised hub, MMUH is designed to support operational efficiency and technological innovation, while enhancing the patient and staff experience, delivering a new model of care that encourages patient mobility, independence, and wellbeing.

Designed by HKS, Cagni Williams and Sonnemann Toon, the new 11-storey hospital spans 84,000 sqm and provides an Emergency Department with imaging and diagnostic services and a dedicated children’s ED and assessment unit. It also delivers 13 operating theatres, midwife-led birthing unit and delivery suite, maternity wards and antenatal services, a neonatal unit, same day emergency care for adults, and a regional sickle cell and thalassaemia centre. Providing an exceptional patient experience was a key design goal from the start. Wards and individual rooms maximise natural light and views to create a calming, restorative environment for patient recuperation. Offering 736 new beds, with 50% of inpatients in single ensuite rooms, patient rooms have been designed to promote patient safety and ease of visibility for staff, paired with touchdown observation alcoves. These allow for potential conversions into isolation bedrooms with minimal construction work required, maximising flexibility and providing resilience during surge periods. To optimise flexibility, the hospital design is based on a single structural grid. This accommodates a wide range of clinical and functional spaces, easily adapted for future expansion, and to support the delivery of new service models and working practices, as medical technology and acute healthcare needs evolve, design features that improve patient and staff experience. Compact, efficient planning creates a new benchmark in UK clinical design, component standardisation, MMC implementation, bringing benefits and efficiencies to project delivery. Logistics, wayfinding and patient flow are also central to the hospital design. The fresh interior has a clear design language, centred around easy to navigate orange cores, and separate circulation routes are in place for patients, staff and visitors, to enhance privacy, navigation, and safety. MMUH’s Winter Garden provides a peaceful and therapeutic space to promote healing, relaxation and reflection, delivering a bright and modern arrival point to the hospital, with transparent lift cores, stairwells and walkways further enhancing daylight, connectivity and wayfinding across each floor. The Winter Garden gives way to an outdoor roof terrace, accessible for patients, visitors and staff. It also features an expansive art gallery space, overnight visitor facilities and a multi-faith prayer room. #MoreThanAHospital, MMUH acts as a community regeneration project, surrounded by the cricket pitch-sized green, landscaped terrace and a community garden. This community connection influenced the hospital’s location, with pedestrian and cycle routes alongside the canal, transforming this post-industrial site and the inclusion of social spaces and amenities for visitors and patients, blurring the boundaries between hospital and public realms.