We have worked alongside RMHC for circa. fifteen years designing and delivering a number of Houses across the UK. RMH Oxford is a new 62-bedroom House located within the grounds of the John Radcliffe Hospital. It supports families who have seriously ill children being treated at the hospital by allowing them to stay close to their loved ones. The facility includes communal living facilities such as kitchens, lounges, and laundry rooms, making it a true ‘home away from home’.

Mediating between domestic buildings and the hospital, a sensitive design solution was required. In response, we broke the four-storey House into three, distinct horizontal bands. The ground floor approach embodies the RMHC brand identity whilst the first and second floors are architecturally grouped with traditional materials, sitting comfortably in the neighbourhood. The fourth floor is recessive, stepped back from the building edge and designed to become lost in the skyscape.

Sustainability was a key focus of the brief. In response, the facade design and environmental servicing strategy aimed to deliver an energy efficient and user-friendly building. The building achieved a target 30% reduction of CO² emissions over and above the requirement in Part L of the Building Regulations and a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’. To achieve this, the building utilised:

• Excellent building fabric insulation and air tightness to reduce heat loss.
• Natural ventilation to majority of spaces.
• Extremely efficient CHP unit to provide heating and hot water.
• Highly efficient air source heat pump technology used for cooling where required.
• LED lighting to most of the building.
• Natural building materials to reduce the carbon footprint of the construction process.
• Supplementary roof mounted PV panels.

Willmott Dixon, partnering contractor to the Charity, commenced construction of the new House in December 2018 with completion reached in March 2020. It opened to families in Summer 2020.