North East Health Innovation Neighbourhood
The brief
Transform a 29-acre former NHS brownfield site in Newcastle into a living laboratory where health is the main foundation and not an afterthought.
Who was it for: A development joint venture partnership
What we did:
We mapped the evidence and opportunities where health could genuinely drive value across the entire site - not just where a health building might sit, but opportunities where housing, learning, leisure and public realm interventions could be designed so that staying well was the easy, obvious choice.
What we found reframed the whole project.
The biggest strategic opportunities weren't healthcare buildings at all. Preventative infrastructure, the kind that keeps people out of the system rather than treating them once they're in it, carried more long-term value than any single clinical asset.
Social connection itself functioned as infrastructure, not a nice-to-have layered on afterwards.
That reframing is now shaping how the wider masterplan is being developed.