National Paediatric Hospital, Dublin – Local Regeneration Opportunities

A strategy to maximise the regenerative impact of the investment in a new Children's Hospital in Dublin

Urban Initiatives Studio were appointed by the NPH Development Board to identify the regeneration benefits that investment in a new children’s hospital on the St James Hospital Campus, to the west of Dublin City Centre, would bring to the wider area.

The new Children’s Hospital will be a world-class facility and the most significant capital investment project ever undertaken in healthcare in Ireland. It will increase the number of people working at the campus to 7,000 and fundamentally change the way that healthcare is managed within the area.

We worked closely with the hospital architects BDP and O’Connell Mahon Architects, to prepare a development framework that identifies how the disjointed and deprived neighbourhoods around the campus could be transformed through a combination of new development, enhanced connections, public realm improvements and local initiatives. The proposals respond to the areas unique history and culture and were developed through an open and collaborative process working closely with healthcare providers and the city council.

The framework was submitted to Bord Pleanala as part of the successful planning application for the new Children’s Hospital and the proposals set out within it are reflected in the new Dublin Development Plan.

The NPH Development Board are now establishing a partnership that will deliver the ‘Alliance Healthcare Centre’. This will be a purpose designed/ retrofitted building of approximately 100,000 sq. ft. that will accommodate a range of occupiers who will drive healthcare innovation forward. We have prepared a brochure that will be used to market this opportunity and continue to provide advice to the NPH Board.

Our proposals anticipate development of a health innovation corridor for Dublin, with the new hospital acting as a catalyst to attract healthcare industries and suppliers to the area. The new Children’s Hospital will have a dedicated space called the ‘Ideas Clinic’ where staff, students, researchers, inventors, multi-national corporations and small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) will be given an opportunity to experiment with creative concepts that may develop into innovations suitable for commercial ventures.