Project Details

As part of a new-build mental health facility at St Ann’s Hospital, a therapeutic environment had been designed to offer service users direct and independent access to outdoor space, an essential component of recovery and wellbeing.

The design brief called for a solution that balanced safety, dignity, and autonomy. The requirement was clear: to enable therapeutic access to fresh air and natural light, while maintaining the highest standards of safety and durability.

As part of a competitive tendering process, the Trust conducted a thorough project-specific review of all window options with the Safevent Access (with Multask handle) emerging as the product of choice.

A unique combination that answered both the clinical and architectural needs of the space. The Safevent Access window is anti-ligature and anti-contraband by design, yet it retains a domestic aesthetic that softens the institutional feel of the building. The addition of the Multask handle empowers service users to operate the window themselves, promoting independence and reinforcing therapeutic design principles.

By enabling controlled access to fresh air and outdoor views, a solution is created that supports recovery, reduces agitation, and fosters a sense of personal agency, all while ensuring the environment remains secure and robust.

The windows are some of the largest Safevents ever installed at 2.1m high, with the oversize windows helping to create dramatic elevations as well as boosting light levels in the new facility.

Designed by specialist practice Medical Architecture, the plans for St Ann’s were developed with patients, staff and local stakeholders and involve a series of improvements to the healthcare campus.

Works were carried out whilst the remainder of the campus remained a live facility.

The brand new, state-of-the-art mental health wards are considered amongst the best in the country.