Case Study

Maudsley Learning Centre: Ortus Building

The elegant and civic facade of the new Ortus Building at the Maudsley Hospital in south London flags up a very different approach to mental health architecture. Innovation in research, education and investment in mental healthcare is the mission for client, the Maudsley Charity - a body set up way before the NHS was born. Duggan Morris Architects spent a year with the client and various stakeholder groups to establish what the client group wanted and needed.

The new building has the generous feel and fine finish of a Maggie's Centre - pale concrete, warm wood and high-quality cushions and curtains - married with the calm bustle of a small college. There is no reception: visitors are greeted by a concierge, seated casually at a large table. There is a cafe, with views on to the surrounding trees, and a sunny terrace for sitting out. Inside wide wooden steps up to a mezzanine level are strewn with cushions and are clearly intended for seating. They lead into an atrium space that bisects the building, with all rooms and stairs leading off this central daylit area.

Maudsley Learning Centre: Ortus Building

Flexibility is key in all teaching and meeting spaces on either side of the atrium: rooms can be partitioned for 20 or opened up for as many as 80, through electronically controlled sliding panels. Technology is hidden in ceiling beams and accessed via floor panels; seminars held in meeting rooms can be broadcast to screens elsewhere.

Client: Maudsley Charity
Architect: Duggan Morris
Area: 1,500 sq m
Cost: £4.65m
Opened: 2013