When it comes to designing buildings, you can't beat experience. That's what Dunwoodie Architects has.
The company was founded in 1990. Laura Ruxton became principal director in 2015 having spent her entire career with the firm, and in 2017 she was instrumental in merging with Swift Architects, owned by Peter Swift. They now head-up the team at Dunwoodie Architects.
The company is one of the UK’s best known healthcare specialists. In recent years Dunwoodie Architects has continued to grow, expanding into the commercial, retail and leisure sectors amongst others. In the North East they have provided architectural services for North Tyneside General and South Tyneside hospitals, University Hospital Durham, North Tees and Hartlepool hospitals, Sunderland Royal Infirmary and Queen Elizabeth in Gateshead and are currently on site with a new 1000 space multi storey car park at the RVI in Newcastle due for completion soon.
Elsewhere around the country you will find Dunwoodie Architects’ work at hospitals in Hull, Scarborough and Sheffield. They also work internationally and have completed work for a hospital in Malta. But as every business knows, the landscape has changed dramatically over the past twelve months courtesy of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“When everything went into lockdown a year ago, nobody knew what was going to happen or how long we’d be affected,” said Laura, “but here we are a year later and nobody really knows how or when it will all finish. Having said that, as a business we’ve responded really well and are actually working on several Covid related projects.” “Because of Covid restrictions, many businesses and organisations, especially those which are reliant on people having access to buildings, are being forced to take a close look at how they can make facilities accessible in a safe manner,” added Peter. “Precautions are likely to stay in place for a long time so we are finding that the need for the way people enter and leave buildings or use certain spaces is having to change.”
He’s right. We can no longer saunter around shops; many of them have a one way system to reduce the amount of potential contact. How often have you been forced to queue in the rain before allowed inside? Bars and restaurants have had to change their seating areas to allow for social distancing. You invariably find that the entrance and exit areas are now in different places.
“A classic example is the work we’ve undertaken for the Northumbria NHS Trust regarding Cramlington Hospital, said Laura. “We’ve redesigned the way patients arrive at the hospital. They will now be immediately met by a Covid safe reception area after which they are then directed to where they need to be. There are route markings, additional signage, newly-arranged waiting areas and a new exit. This work would apply to the majority of hospitals, care homes, health centres, GP surgeries and other healthcare providers because everyone is having to take similar precautions.”
Peter also makes a really good point when he says that there’s a Covid ripple effect which will be relevant to many businesses and organisations. “Everywhere that relies on a flow of people will be affected. Railway stations, airports, leisure centres, cinemas, shopping precincts, universities, schools…they all have people moving around them and they will all in some way need to rearrange how that movement takes place. It’s hard to imagine that when (if) we return to normal that everything will go back to how it was at the start of March 2020. And what about offices? Many businesses have staff working from home. Will everyone go back to working from an office block? It’s highly unlikely.”
The flow of people and access is something which Dunwoodie Architects had to consider in another of their success stories. Peter and Laura designed the Newcastle Stack and Seaburn Stack. These have been two developments which transformed the areas where they’ve been built. Seaburn Stack is the latest, but there are more Stack developments in the pipeline. They are a clever way of providing a leisure and retail facility in what can sometimes be a tricky place for development & provide a ‘meantime’ use. They also give people a reason for going somewhere. This could apply to many towns and cities which are being hit hard by retail stores either moving out of town or closing altogether. “2021 is going to be an interesting year,” said Laura. “A lot of planned developments will need to be either scrapped or redesigned. Many will need to be repurposed. Our High Streets will be changing. The way we work, shop and entertain ourselves is changing. Thankfully, because Dunwoodie Architects has been around for over thirty years, we can point to design ideas which have worked and will be relevant to the new-look 21st Century.”
Dunwoodie Architects. They had designs on the past; now they’re building for the future.
