Hygiene and sound insulation in a new cancer hospital

A hospital built around the patient

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Liverpool brings advanced cancer care, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy and radiotherapy, into one new building. It has 110 single en-suite bedrooms and an open-plan chemotherapy floor with views across the city, where each patient gets their own bay with a privacy screen, power and Wi-Fi, so they can choose quiet or company.

The building's curves have earned it a local nickname: "The Liner." Behind that design sits a simpler priority: making a stressful place calmer for the people being treated in it.

A hygiene standard to meet, and noise leaking between rooms

A hospital ceiling has to do two things at once. Across the whole building, it needs to meet strict hygiene standards and keep spaces calm and comfortable for patients and staff.

But some rooms had an extra problem. Where partition walls stop at the ceiling instead of running all the way up to the floor slab above, sound travels over the top, from one room into the next, through the shared space above the ceiling.

Those rooms needed more than standard absorption. They needed a ceiling that blocks sound from passing through.