The outcome of this design-led exploration was the development of a bid to establish a
radically different kind of Community Hospital in response to a national tender process.
Whereas the majority of bids were along ‘conventional’ lines involving buildings and a fixed
location the Open Door approach was to take the hospital to the community – specifically the
excluded members identified above. Using a location in an abandoned shop front along a
main street in the heart of the declining part of town the plan was to create an ‘open door’
allowing users to drop in and access a wide range of services. Staff would be drawn in based
on their availability to work odd hours and with a motivation to help this community, whilst
equipment would be small and portable. In other words the hospital would be designed and
configured around the needs and ideas of the user community which it was designed to serve.