The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House

by Cullinan Studio with 10architect

Client Alder Hey NHS Foundation Trust

Award RIBA North West Award 2025 and RIBA North West Client of the Year 2025 (sponsored by Equitone)

The award winner tells us: "The Catkin Centre and Sunflower House, designed by Cullinan Studio and Turkington Martin, and delivered by 10architect, bring together specialist mental-health facilities previously scattered across the hospital site and city, in two connected buildings.

The Catkin Centre provides outpatient services including for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), eating disorders, development paediatrics, child and adult mental health services (CAMHS), and crisis care. Sunflower House is a 12-bed inpatient mental-health unit providing a home-from-home for young people with complex and enduring mental-health conditions – one of only six in the country. The facilities are designed around courtyard gardens, creating a warm and welcoming environment with strong connections to nature."

The jury says: "The jury were impressed by the careful way these opportunities had been taken to step away from the clinical norms of hospital design. The selection of solid cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels for corridor walls add character – a robust, hard-wearing finish, but one that softens these light-filled spaces. The building was filled with not only light but also views to landscapes, either in the form of the courtyard garden or the campus parkland.

Externally, weathering steel cladding provides a contrast to the greenery surrounding the building and the timber within. It is hard to overestimate the challenging nature of the project brief, or indeed the amazing work the staff and users of the building undertake. Those the jury met were full of praise for the way this project enhances the possibilities for a therapeutic environment."

Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal

Contractor Galliford Try

Landscape architect (up to Stage 3+) Turkington Martin

Artist Lucy Casson

Gross internal area 3,073m²