Akerman Road Health Centre

The Akerman Road Health Centre is a new build situated in a highly residential area of Lambeth. The centre accommodates a range of services including GP clinics, dentistry, children’s services, midwifery, primary care and community health services. It also provides a base for Lambeth’s school nurses, health visitors and district nurses and the council’s adults and community services team.

On the ground, first and second floors, it is rectangular in plan, while the third floor describes an extended cruciform shape. This same motif is evident in all four elevations. The structural grid (of 1.2m x 4.15m) allows a diverse range of room sizes, as well as future proofing the building as services evolve.

Willmott Dixon must be congratulated for their commitment to high quality design at Akerman.

Oliver Wainwright, architecture critic, The Guardian

Quality objectives

Akerman Road Health Centre was designed by Henley Halebrown Rorrison Architects to be a landmark building to house community health care facilities.

We engaged with the client from the outset of the project regarding all quality matters. Throughout, there is attention to detail, down to finishes and colour choices, which remove any sense of a clinical environment.

Doors and window frames are of natural timber, corridors are lined with warm tones, and the lighting is diffuse, avoiding the fluorescent glare of hospitals.

The floors are arranged simply: three bands of cellular rooms are separated by two long corridors, with treatment rooms along each elevation and service spaces down the central spine. They are welcoming, generous spaces.

The glazed entrance is aligned with a perpendicular street, continuing the visual axis through the building, to line up with a forthcoming row of houses to the west. The building is clad in a textured skin of rough brickwork.

Sustainable features

• Air source heat pump and air-to-water heat pump
• Natural ventilation strategy
• Large areas of green roof
• The insulation standards exceed Part L by 15 per cent and air tightness exceeds statutory requirements by 30%