A children's hospital in Brighton has this year beaten out buildings such as the Royal Festival Hall and the Young Vic to take Britain's Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award. The Royal Alexandra children's hospital, known to its friends as the Alex, first opened in 1881 but used the opportunity offered by a recent move to a new space to brighten its design and take advantage of increased floor area. The result is a building filled with light and air and where every room has a view of the sea and trundle beds for parents. The Guardian has some lovely pictures, and also talked to hospital executive Duncan Selbie:
"Now they have the space, facilities and equipment to provide a vast
range of clinical and therapeutic services in an environment skillfully
designed to accommodate 21st-century healthcare."
No Brighton tack here! Yeah and not bad for what some people in America would call a socialist health care system.