“Stepping into Delamere is a little like walking into a modern boutique hotel. Intimate, imaginative and impressively well equipped. En-suite bathrooms in attractively designed bedrooms are complemented by comfortable communal spaces with more unexpected amenities like our art studio, gymnasium, yurt and movie theatre.”

PRESENTATION

Designing recovery: Patient-centred innovation in delivering the UK’s 1st purpose-built addiction treatment rehab

This session shares the end-to-end journey of developing the UK’s first purpose-built addiction treatment rehab facility. It examines how lived-experience input from patients and frontline staff was captured and translated into a therapeutic design brief, the rigorous process used to select the architect, and the practical adaptations required when the same core model was rolled out at a 2nd site in a different location. Attendees will discover how intentional, evidence- and experience-informed design can transform outcomes in addiction recovery environments.

Learning objectives:

At the end of this presentation, delegates will be able to:

• Identify and prioritise the key environmental, therapeutic and operational requirements expressed by patients and staff in addiction treatment settings, and explain how these shaped an architectural brief
• Describe a robust, values-driven process for selecting and collaborating with an architect on a specialised healthcare facility
• Evaluate the design adaptations needed when replicating a successful rehab model in a new geographical and contextual setting while preserving clinical and experiential integrity.