Using high-quality green infrastructure to enhance wellbeing, water and wildlife: Forth Valley Royal Hospital & Larbert Woods
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Forth Valley hosptial grounds
Building with Nature
Forth Valley Royal Hospital and Larbert Woods is a national exemplar which demonstrates the value of green infrastrucutre in a health setting and what is possible when a shared vision between ambitious and committed partners, (NHS Forth Valley, Forestry Commission Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage), is delivered with fastidious attention to the detail, by the professionals responsible for protecting and enhancing landscape quality in the early stages of design.
The built and the natural features on site include garden courtyards that run through the building, visitor gardens welcoming people at the entrance and the restored sanctuary of Larbert Woods and Larbert Loch. The design, construction and maintaince of the estate demonstrate a clear understanding of the value of creating access to high quality green infrastructure, for both the recipients of care, and as a preventative measure, to suport the mental and physical wellbeing of staff and visitors to the facility.
Last update: 13 Jan 2021
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Impacts
Winner of the Landscape Institute 2020 Building with Nature national award, the Forth Valley Royal Hospital and Larbert Woods was praised by the LI judging panel as “a national exemplar for NHS” that represented “value for money”. The panel appreciated how the integration of green infrastructure and the natural world into the scheme captured the preventative health benefits of green infrastructure both for visitors and for outside population. The judges remarked that it was a great win for a hospital to be doing such best practice, and to be able to share this best practice with the wider sector.
Building with Nature is the UK’s first benchmark for high-quality green infrastructure and introduces a set of standards developed in partnership with industry that define high-quality Green Infrastructure at each stage of the lifecycle of green infrastructure, from design, through to implementation, and long-term management. Building with Nature offers formal Accreditation of both physical development and strategic policy documents.
The Building with Nature Standards are free to use, but Accreditation includes a fee for Assessment and Audit. End-users include developers, housebuilders, local authority planners, and a wide range of design and construction professionals.
