Project Of The Week – One Stop Doctors

This week’s instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features Goddard Littlefair’s healthcare design project that uses modern aesthetics to create a true sense of wellbeing. 

One Stop Doctors is a boundary-changing health and wellness clinic, which sets a new standard of excellence in the private healthcare sector and offers patients on-demand medical expertise, along with outpatient diagnostics, physiotherapy, dentistry and aesthetics. This is all available within a ‘one stop’ clinic, available from early morning to late evenings and weekends to fit with patients’ busy working lives. The brief was to create an environment that embodied the instant premium touch-points patients might expect from a high-end service environment, while communicating the calm, soothing and welcoming feel of an obviously patient-centric experience, so that there is as little stress as possible at every stage of the patient journey. The design emphasis maximises the contribution of the environment towards promoting a sense of wellbeing and creating confidence in the clinical excellence patients will experience.

SBID had the opportunity to speak with Martin Goddard, Director & Co-Founder at Goddard Littlefair. 

Company: Goddard Littlefair

Project: One Stop Doctors

Project Location:  London, United Kingdom

What was the client’s brief?

The brief was to create an environment that embodied the instant premium touch-points you’d expect from a high-end service environment, whilst communicating the calm, soothing and welcoming feel of an obviously patient-centric experience, so there’d be as little stress as possible at every stage of the patient journey. The client was very keen to pull on our experience of premium spa and wellness centre design to achieve this.

‘We were not looking for the usual clinical healthcare design, but wanted a designer who could share our vision for creating an ambience that was relaxed, reassuring and tranquil, very comfortable and also aesthetically beautiful, but which still felt professional and reassuring to patients, so they know they are in the best possible care.’ – One Stop Doctors CEO, Ella Tracey

What inspired the design of the project? 

We began the project by researching the private sector healthcare market in terms of look and feel and found that most clinics so far had followed the American model, with a very cool and clinical treatment throughout. We wanted our emphasis to be different and for patients to experience a much higher level of design values, maximising the contribution of the environment towards creating a sense of well-being and confidence in the clinical excellence they’re going to encounter.

Then it was all about the idea of a journey, with seamless transitional environments helping the patient to progress through the spaces, decompressing them to be ready for the clinical areas. For example, the welcoming entry lobby area is more akin to a hotel or spa reception and features a sophisticated design treatment using art, texture and drama to give a real sense of arrival. The mood is welcoming and warm with respect for the architecture and full advantage taken of the natural light coming in from the courtyard. Semi-private areas beyond such as waiting areas or corridors feature a natural palette with softer colours, whilst the private areas – the consultation, treatment, dentistry and scanning rooms – also have a lighter palette. This series of colour transitions subliminally signals the patient’s movement from the welcome of arrival to a cooler feel for consultation and cooler feel still for clinical treatments.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

Working with healthcare specification requirements and trying to integrate the medical equipment and required medical materials so they would not look too rigid, but at the same time maintained the high level of professionalism on offer.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

There were two really. One was the pleasure of introducing art into the scheme using natural shapes and textures, so that the striking art pieces are properly integrated into the design. The second one was some time after the end of the project and finding out how well staff and patients were reacting to the space:

‘We are absolutely delighted with the finished product. Staff, visitors and patients alike are so impressed with the elegance of the design and the attention to detail, but also appreciate the feeling of warmth and comfort that it creates.’ – One Stop Doctors CEO, Ella Tracey

Why did you enter the SBID International Design Awards?

As well as naturally respecting the industry standing of the SBID, it’s also a real pleasure to have your designs recognised and admired by your peers.

Questions answered by Martin Goddard, Director & Co-Founder at Goddard Littlefair. 

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If you missed last week’s Project of the Week with G-Art Design for the Shanghai Zhihui CIFI Square Modeling Finance Office, click here to see more

Entries to the SBID Awards 2017 are now closed. To find out more about booking a table, click here

We hope you feel inspired! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire

Goddard Littlefair | SBID International Design Awards 2017