BDP reveals images of contest-winning designs for £600m Leeds hospitals

BDP has revealed its Yorkshire Dales-inspired, contest-winning concept designs for a £600 million pair of hospitals in Leeds.Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust picked the AJ100 big-hitter for the job last month, ahead of London and Århus-based CF Møller Architects; HOK; NBBJ with White Arkitekter; and Penoyre & Prasad with Danish stars Schmidt Hammer Lassen, who are both now part of US giant Perkins&Will.Earmarked to complete in 2025, the 94,000m² project will deliver a new ‘state-of-the-art’ hospital for adult healthcare as well as a purpose-built new home for Leeds Children’s Hospital on the site of the existing Leeds General Infirmary, next to Leeds University. The latter scheme will bring all clinical services for children and young people under one roof in Leeds for the first time.BDP said the shaped of the proposed hospital structure had been inspired by the Yorkshire landscape and feature a ‘large island garden and play deck at its centre’.The development is the first of six major hospital projects to receive funding as part of the £2.7 billion first wave of the government’s Health Infrastructure Plan. The programme aims to build 40 hospitals by 2030.It is estimated the design contract will be worth around £9.5 million to BDP, which, earlier this month, announced it had snapped up specialist stadium architect Pattern for an undisclosed sum.The Leeds General Infirmary is a large teaching hospital, originally founded in 1711, featuring a mix of 19th-century buildings designed by George Gilbert Scott and various 20th-century buildings across a large city-centre campus.The new hospitals will be built on the north-east corner of the healthcare campus, on a site currently occupied by several soon-to-be-demolished buildings, including a nurses’ home.As well as the new buildings, the scheme will potentially redevelop the old Leeds General Infirmary site to sit within the city’s growing Innovation District.BDP will develop its detailed designs over the next 12-18 months and the trust hopes to start construction in 2023.