Natural inspiration for valley hospital

It is not often, according to HLM Architects, that that a hospital project is used as a catalyst for an area's social regeneration. As the practice itself puts it: 'Regeneration tends to rely on creating a sense of pride and local identity, qualities with which hospitals are rarely associated'. However creating a design that engendered a real sense of community ownership, and that local people could be really proud of, was precisely the challenge that faced the architects on the Ysbyty Cwm Cynon hospital project in South Wales, as HEJ reports.