Do No Harm

Life’s fundamentals happen in hospital, yet too often they occur in an environment that is far from nurturing. House of Grey’s latest project, the redesign of three rooms for patient counselling and for staff at Whittington Hospital’s neonatal unit, are a blueprint for a kinder approach: design that promotes healing rather than hinders it, with circularity built in, too.

The north London hospital is close to House of Grey’s studio, and the latter was approached by the NHS to redesign a counselling room, parents’ room and staff room. Non-clinical areas such as these have a habit of adopting many of the traits that may be necessary for wards or exam rooms, almost by dint of proximity: bright lights, hard surfaces and antimicrobial materials. House of Grey, which funded the design process itself and relied on many donations from design brands, has turned that on its head, with a calm palette, soft curves, lots of upholstery and soothing lighting.

“This has been a very personal project and one where I saw the opportunity to illustrate exactly what design can achieve in a clinical setting,” says House of Grey’s founder Louisa Grey. The studio’s ideology is ‘circular salutogenic design’, so that every project must be good for people and planet alike. ‘Salutogenic’, simply translated, means something that keeps us well and is beneficial to health, a word that will be familiar to a healthcare design specialist but is rarely used outside of that industry: and yet its principles can be adopted everywhere. The integration of nature; lighting that works with our circadian rhythms; and a mix of ‘public’ and ‘private’ (and the freedom to choose between them) are just three examples.

Grey says that the seeds of her ethos “were sewn when I spent time in the hospital having my son and found the strip lighting and general design did not feed my soul or support me feeling mentally better after the birth. I wanted to feel supported, I wanted the staff to feel supported so they could work to their optimum, not pinched and compromised to work in a challenging, stressful environment.” Post-Covid, when the NHS seems stretched more than ever, this has never felt so valuable – and yet so (relatively) easy to achieve as a way of making lives easier.

With strict regulations governing the safety of hospital interiors, was it difficult to find products that give the rooms their inviting, domestic feel? “We had clinical specifications that we had to adhere to, but the aim was to really push the boundaries and show how with innovative fabrics we could create spaces which did not have to be obviously clinical,” says Grey. “Thinking out of the box we turned to outdoor fabrics, which was the perfect union.”

These have been sourced from Perennials, whose slubby Rough ’n Rowdy in soothing olive green upholsters Audo’s Eaves sofa in the staff room, alongside tobacco-coloured Rough ’n Tumble for a Sebastian Cox dining bench. The whole room wouldn’t look out of place in a luxury apart-hotel, with Pinch wall lights, paint by Bauwerk and Graphenestone, Carl Hansen & Søn dining chairs and a bamboo kitchen by Norwegian brand Ask og Eng, which specialises in sustainable bamboo cabinetry.

The counselling room allows the stimulation of some pattern with one of Dirk van der Kooij’s Melting Point stools, made from recycled plastic. A counsellor can sit in a Carl Hansen & Søn chair, facing a Ferm Living sofa for those receiving therapy.

The parents’ support room leans more fully into the use of natural materials to create a healing environment – a paler version of Ask og Eng’s bamboo kitchen, Farmhouse oak tables by Frama and a low oak stool by Jan Hendzel – while seating (the Panorama modular sofa by Wendelbo for Viaduct) curves inward, to bring the families that use it closer together. Grey says that the room’s main function “was for parents to feel they had an environment to collect their thoughts, which felt like home and less sterile. To be able to be with each other comfortably, to share in stories of positivity and bring an energy that is not normally found in these spaces.”

The roll-call of brands that have donated items is impressive, proof not only of Grey’s persuasiveness but of a wider generosity in the industry. “We called upon our creative tribe of like-minded makers, designers, artisans, craftspeople and suppliers to join this collaboration – and they generously answered the call,” she says. Some have gone above and beyond, in the most lovely and sensitive ways: Sebastian Cox’s hand-crafted bench includes a removeable section that allows the midwives to sleep with their shoes on and still be comfortable.

Grey says that the project has given her immense personal satisfaction. “Each time I hear the positive feedback that we have had since delivering them to the NHS, the endorphins and high are indescribable,” she says. “We recently found out the counselling room is being trialled as a space for therapy for children’s mental health. As a mother this made me feel extremely happy that it may have another use that extends from the original neonatal focus.”

To donate to Whittington Health Charity, the dedicated charity for Whittington Health NHS Trust, visit its website here