Stratheden Mental Health Units

Accommodation is divided between two single storey units, one providing 18 low security bedrooms (phase one), and the other 24 medium security bedrooms (phase two).

The 18 bed unit is split into two wings, male and female, with communal facilities located centrally to form a u-shape. The buildings enclose a south facing sensory garden for patients. The plan allows for patients to wander freely around the buildings and into the secure garden from various points.

Each individual room is lit via a roof light located below the pitched roof ridge line. Each bedroom is identifiable by individual pitched roofs giving the patients a sense of their own identity within the building. The wings have small alcoves with built-in seating for patients to stop and sit and look out into the garden.

The 24 bed unit is similarly split into two wings, which are separated by a central spine of dual accommodation. The bedrooms are located around two enclosed courtyards. This allows for easy and free access to the outside into the secured gardens, one for 'functional' patients and one for 'organic' patients.

The nurses’ base is located to give views and easy access throughout the building. From this point staff and visitors are led to either side of the central spine and into the wings where the circulation routes form a continuous loop around the courtyards so that patients can wander without ever coming to a dead end.