Our towns and cities could and should be good for us. But walk down almost any high street in the UK today and you’ll notice two things: shuttered shops and people living with long-term health conditions. Retail has been retreating, leaving behind empty shells of buildings, while demand on the NHS continues to grow. These two stories are connected – and they point to a clear opportunity.
Health and wellbeing hubs, integrated spaces for healthcare and healthier living, placed right in the middle of towns and cities, are a powerful answer. They make healthcare more accessible, tackle health inequalities, and re-energise high streets. But they can also be beautifully designed civic places that blend architecture and landscape architecture to nurture wellbeing from the moment people step inside – or even before they walk through the door.
As architects, we have a responsibility to design spaces that function and create environments that actively support healthier lives. That means thinking as much about the public realm and the journey to the building as we do about the internal spaces.
The idea of decentralising healthcare is not new, but what has changed is the urgency and the scale. Government plans are underway to roll out at least 42 neighbourhood health hubs across England, and projects like the new Catterick Integrated Health and Care Campus, where BDP is lead designer, are setting the benchmark by bringing GP practices, diagnostic services, community care, mental health support, and even leisure facilities into one place.
The benefits of integrated care environments are well-documented. Convenience matters, particularly for those in disadvantaged communities. When health hubs are based in town centres, people don’t need to make long journeys to distant hospitals. They can drop in for a blood test while running errands, attend physiotherapy after doing their food shop, or simply feel more connected to daily life. What matters most is that these spaces don’t stand apart from the communities they serve but are knitted into the rhythm of everyday life. And that is where design becomes critical.
We’ve already seen how underused retail spaces can be repurposed to serve this new vision. A diagnostic centre in a former department store in Poole is a clear example. Stripped back, reimagined, and fitted with state-of-the-art equipment, it now provides 146,000 diagnostic tests a year. This is more than recycling buildings – it’s a cultural shift. Where once people went shopping, they now go to look after their health. The architecture has to reflect that new purpose. Old shop floors are deep and dark, designed for browsing, not blood pressure checks. Yet they come with prime locations and strong civic presence. By cutting in rooflights, reorganising circulation, and layering in natural materials and intuitive wayfinding, we can transform them into uplifting and welcoming spaces. The challenge is not to disguise their past but to celebrate their new life.
One of the most powerful lessons we’ve learned from recent projects is that outdoor space is fundamental to the experience. At Pentre Awel in Llanelli, our landscape architecture team has led the transformation of a former industrial site into a nature-rich environment that supports both health and biodiversity. This former industrial site has been carefully transformed into a welcoming, nature-rich environment for all. Sensory gardens, public realm bursting with greenery and new trees support both people’s wellbeing and biodiversity. Habitats for wildlife such as water voles and otters are protected and enhanced. Rainwater is filtered through a sustainable drainage system before entering a newly formed lake. The site has been designed with accessibility in mind, providing step-free routes, plentiful resting points, and connections to wider walking and cycling paths that lead directly into the town and onto the Millennium Coastal Path. In this way, the landscape becomes as integral to the health hub as the clinical services inside. For many people, a walk through the sensory gardens, a pause by the water, or a cycle ride to the hub may be just as important as the appointment they attend.
The architecture itself must follow the same principles of bold, beautiful simplicity. Healthcare buildings are often weighed down by complex plans, labyrinthine corridors, and forbidding facades. Health and wellbeing hubs should be straightforward, legible, and open to all. Entrances should be obvious and generous, circulation intuitive, and natural light abundant. Waiting areas should not feel like holding pens for anxious patients but places of calm and dignity, with views to landscape and public space, opportunities for conversation, and moments of connection.
Sustainability is also central. Many health hubs are developed on brownfield sites or in repurposed buildings, which helps reduce carbon use, while low-energy systems, natural materials, and flexible layouts ensure these buildings will serve communities for decades to come. Health and wellbeing hubs should be dynamic pieces of social infrastructure, able to adapt as needs evolve. Indeed, the diagnostic centre in Poole, once used for covid vaccinations, is now a hub for ophthalmology and breast cancer screening.
Health hubs like this provide a potential to reframe how we think about community health and wellbeing. They are not just about cutting waiting lists or creating efficiency. When designed with care and imagination, they become civic anchors – places where clinical treatment, everyday activity, and public life overlap. A blood pressure check, a stroll through a sensory garden, a chat with a neighbour in a light-filled atrium: all these are part of the same continuum of wellbeing.
They are also agents of regeneration. Research shows that health buildings increase footfall in town centres, supporting local businesses and giving people new reasons to visit high streets. They treat illness and bring vitality back into places that have been struggling. They are many things rolled into one - healthcare and placemaking, treatment and prevention.
The UK is still at the beginning of this journey. The potential is huge, but so is the responsibility. These buildings should be designed with humanity at their core, blending architecture and landscape to create places of dignity, hope, and belonging.
As designers, our role is to keep pushing for boldness and clarity. To resist the temptation of over-design and instead focus on the essentials: daylight, green space accessibility, and the ability to make people feel welcome and at ease.
If we get it right, health and wellbeing hubs will relieve pressure on acute hospital buildings and change the way people experience healthcare in their everyday lives – turning clinical visits into moments of civic pride and personal wellbeing.
And perhaps, in years to come, people will look back and ask not “why did we put healthcare into town centres?” but “why did it ever leave?”