Alder Centre in Liverpool

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris 


Within the Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, this facility offers counseling and services to anyone affected by the death of a child. A 2016 competition organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) was won by the firm Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, and its project included a walled garden where individual pavilions wouldl stand under pitched roofs varying in height. Embracing local building tradition, the complex presents steel structures, self-supporting brick walls, and prefabricated timber roofs. During the design phase, the scheme was analyzed with sophisticated environmental modeling software to maximize comfort, energy performance, and daylight through passive strategies. The volumes rise toward skylights that incorporate a system for opening and closing them, in accordance with changing thermal and ventilation needs. Inside we find individual counseling rooms and a large multipurpose communal space equipped with a kitchen where meals are prepared with produce from the garden.