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Corstorphine & Wright to design Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease

By Michael Lampard – 19th July 2023

It is a great honour to announce that Corstorphine & Wright has been awarded the commission to design the new Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease in Leeds (Yorkshire, UK), following a competitive tender process.

Our proposals emphasised our user centric, empathetic design approach which was particularly favourable, alongside our vision for the new centre to provide access to nature and gardens, defined clinical spaces and a communal hub for patients, their families and the wider MND to come together to share experiences, create memories and engage with clinical staff in a non-institutional environment.

Yesterday (18/07/23), we embarked on the first engagement session, presenting our approach to designing the new centre to an intimate audience of approximately 20 people, including Rob Burrow and his parents Geoff and Irene.

The collective aspiration is that this building will become an exemplar for therapeutic clinical spaces, located within sensitively designed and carefully curated landscaped areas, providing sensory enrichment for all users of the building as they go through their journey with MND.

Craige Richardson, Executive Director: Estate & Facilities, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Corstorphine & Wright on board to the project and to start the journey that will now take us through to the construction of the new centre. This is a milestone moment in the project and we’re looking forward to an exciting phase of creativity as the team brings their experience across healthcare and commercial building design to this unique project. This first engagement session has begun, and we’ve really embarked on the journey now.”

Esther Wakeman, Chief Executive of Leeds Hospitals Charity:
“We are delighted that Corstorphine & Wright has been appointed to design the new Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease, this is an exciting step forward on our journey to build a new centre for MND patients and their loved ones. We are looking forward to working closely with the architects, the Burrow family, staff and patients at the MND centre to help make Rob’s dream of a specialist MND centre in Leeds a reality.”

“Over the coming months, we hope to share plans and concept designs for the new centre with our supporters who have so generously donated to help us get one step closer to building the centre. We still need to raise £2.3 million, and I hope that the public will continue to get behind our appeal so we can make a difference to people living with MND and their families across our region.”

Toby Ingle, associate director at Corstorphine & Wright, said:
“The practice is honoured to be appointed to design the new centre. The project will be delivered collaboratively with the MND community, including patients, families, staff as well as the people of Leeds, to ensure that the centre is not only state of the art for the treatment of MND but ‘captures the spirit of Leeds and the Yorkshire region’.”

The £6.8 million project is being funded by Leeds Hospitals Charity.