New QEII Hospital

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Bringing history & modernity together

In 2014, Art in Site was hired to develop and implement the art strategy for the £30 million New QEII Hospital, Welwyn Garden City. This hospital succeeds the much-loved, decommissioned ‘QEII Hospital’ – a place of local history and pride, due to it’s status as the first fully funded NHS hospital to be built after the foundation of the NHS.

Working closely with Penoyre & Prasad architects, Art in Site curated two artists to produce works that would both respect the legacy and history of QEII, at the same time as they reflected the new building’s modernity and progressive services.

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Charlotte Mann

One of the commissioned artists, Charlotte Mann, designed a series of window screens cladding the exterior windows, which provide window ventilation, as well as aiding security and privacy for staff and patients.

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The window screens’ intricate shapes are based on the net curtains seen throughout the local town, and have been rendered using laser-cut stainless steel.

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Mann also produced a highly detailed mural illustration depicting the house and garden at no 39, The Wade - a 1950s house attached to the former Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

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David Tremlett

Alongside Mann’s work, Art in Site commissioned artist David Tremlett to bring colour and rhythm into the entrance hallway. Tremlett is perhaps best known for his work at Tate Britain, where his crayon mural fills the Manton staircase, delighting visitors on their way to see exhibitions. His intervention at New QEII similarly employs playful uses of colour and geometry, which decorate the entrance and extend across the rest of the hospital.

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Tremlett’s piece serves a functional purpose, establishing a colour-code on the walls for way finding across the buildings’ floors.

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Children’s department furniture

Tremlett’s colour-code is also adopted in the graphics and furniture (designed by Art in Site), which features in the children’s services on the top floor. This helps to make the wait for the doctor more stimulating and playful.

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Date 2013 - 2015

Sector Healthcare

Service Hospital

Comissioned by East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Artists Art in Site, Charlotte Mann, David Tremlett

Users Adult and Child pateints

Awards European Healthcare Design Awards 2016; Winner, Interior Design & the Arts