The new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Facility at Cherry Orchard Hospital, design team - Reddy Architecture + Urbanism, has won the 'Best Building Project' at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards at a gala dinner at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire.

The facility provides enhanced modern mental health services for young people aged 2 to 18 years.

The principle philosophy of the design brief was to provide an inviting, open, community-based building with an overriding emphasis on a safe child and adolescent environment which should be client friendly and encourage a close working relationship between all staff of the building.

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The new facility amalgamates a number of existing satellite departments with varied user groups and staffing requirements. Accommodation is provided for two child and family community teams, an adolescent community team, an adolescent day hospital, staff training department and administration support services.

The completed design prides itself on the subtlety with which the atypical safety requirements common to mental health facilities have been discretely incorporated with the design, resulting in a building that is devoid of institutional presence, a normal yet safe building.

(CD)