The Alder Centre receives an RIBA North West Regional Award 2024 31.05.24

The Alder Centre has won an RIBA North West Regional Award for 2024, and its client, the Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, has won the RIBA North West Client of the Year Award.

Located on the campus of the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, The Alder Centre was designed to support bereaved families who have experienced the loss of a child. The whole approach to the design was one of creating a nurturing place of safety, warmth, and support, viewed as a community of spaces that come together to provide a place of immediate and long-term refuge and resource for those affected by bereavement. In the middle of the building is the ‘heart space’ which has a lounge and kitchen where the counsellors and families come together. A series of counselling rooms, sized like bedrooms, unfold from the heart. The external space has been conceived as a ‘Secret Garden’, derived from the children’s book; the building is contained by a walled garden which gives privacy, security and allows outdoor therapy, and the different garden spaces have been designed so that some areas are communal and others are private. Feedback from families and staff has been that the building is beautiful, warm and uplifting, and the RIBA judges commented that ‘it fulfils the most fundamental need – to acknowledge and share grief while finding ways to celebrate life’.

The Alder Centre will now be considered for an RIBA National Award.