The Pharmacy — An Architect’s Perspective

Eleanor Brough is an architect at Sarah Wigglesworth Architects working across multiple sectors, guiding projects from inception to completion. She enjoys working collaboratively and believes design should be people focused and developed through meaningful multi-disciplinary engagement.

The community pharmacy is often the first point of contact to support healthy living. The architectural form of the pharmacy has evolved over time, layouts have shifted around subtly to accommodate changes in services provided, displays have been altered and added to incrementally to respond to changing demand, with adaptations made to address accessibility or safety. The pharmacy today is an accretion of things. In this blog, I am going to reflect on how we might take a step back and rethink the architecture of the pharmacy from first principles and guide the design of the future pharmacy.

Our work at SWA is people focused, based around a collaborative process stimulated by engaging, observing, and asking questions. So, to start the process of rewriting the architectural brief for the community pharmacy, I have set out some initial responses to a series of questions, from my own perspective as an architect and a pharmacy user.

What are the core function of the community pharmacy now?

What do we need to consider in rethinking pharmacy design?

At the start of any project, we typically look to understand the existing constraints of a site, and the needs and aspirations of the end users. I have identified some key themes to explore for the pharmacy:

• Physical accessibility — Level access with ample space to move around, with good visibility and direct routes. Removing physical barriers, such as the traditional pharmacist’s counter. Providing consulting rooms which have enough space for a range of patients, including those with mobility scooters or children in buggies.
• Privacy and comfort — Comfortable and discrete settings which allow and encourage people to share sensitive information or seek advice about ailments away from the till point.
• Communication — Ease of communication through eye contact, lip reading, good lighting, and carefully considered acoustics. Creating space for sensitive conversations. Using technology to support and enhance communication.
• Wayfinding and clarity of information — Reducing ‘noise’ and clutter by using consistent and clear graphics alongside well-organised stock. An external appearance and frontage which is welcoming, with good visibility and which is an asset to the high street.
• Flexibility — Spaces which can adjust to suit different patient needs and the changing services a community pharmacy might offer at different times of day/year.
• Specialist provision — Creating space for minor procedures, vaccinations, or other wellbeing activities on site or via partnerships with neighbouring sites/facilities.
• Security, safeguarding and trust — Layouts and fittings which ensure drugs are stored securely, and that patient confidentiality is respected. Settings which give trust and confidence in the healthcare advice and products being provided.
• Operation and maintenance — fittings and technology which are robust and easy to maintain, minimising wear and tear and technology obsolescence.

How can the design of the space foster a sense of wellbeing, and pro-actively encourage health?

For our recent project for a new Health and Wellbeing Hub in Ebbsfleet Healthy Garden City, we constructed a ‘material mood board’ derived from engagements with stakeholders. The size of each image is commensurate with the strength of feeling concerning the character and identity of the place. In particular, participants told us that they did not enjoy the clinical feel of many healthcare environments, preferring warm, natural and textural materials that made them feel at home.

To refine the brief and character of the future pharmacy, a similar method might be used to gauge the strength of feeling the following themes:

• Layout and spatial planning
• Material palette — natural, sustainable, tactility
• Sound and acoustics
• Daylight and quality of natural light
• Views and connection to nature and the sky
• Biophilic design, planting
• Use of colour and imagery
• Wayfinding and graphics
• Technology

What could the community pharmacy become?

In our work on Ebbsfleet’s Health and Wellbeing Centre, and with other community clients, we explore new models of care and challenge the way in which services have traditionally been provided. This study presents an opportunity to engage more widely to rethink the format of the community pharmacy. For example:

• Street presence. Our high streets are changing, and we are confronted with shifting retail patterns and empty shop units. In light of this, how might we rethink the position of the community pharmacy in our high streets and town centres? Could partnerships with Local Authorities help utilise vacant shop units, and expand the space available and provide other health and wellbeing services on site?
• Bigger picture. Could the community pharmacy become a central part of a wider network linked to other retail, leisure, community facilities to help expand the reach and ensure a holistic approach to health and wellbeing? For example, could the community pharmacy connect with social prescribing linked to local parks’ groups, schools and colleges, or community services such as libraries, or businesses?
• Mixed mode. How might the physical design of the community pharmacy be echoed in its virtual presence and how might the physical and virtual be mutually supportive? For example, tech support for older people to give them greater independence in managing their healthcare online.

Can we create an open-source design guide for community pharmacies which sets out scalable principles, design resources and good practice?

SWA has developed effective design guidance for buildings and neighbourhoods, this has typically been structured around a series of design principles accompanied by checklists at each stage in the design process. As a starting point, a design guide for pharmacies would need to consider:

• A template design process, including simple tools for engaging with pharmacy staff and end users to tailor proposals to a specific setting.
• Principles which are deliverable, fundable and scalable to different types of community pharmacy.
• Suggestions for how to accommodate personalisation based on demographic, setting, scale of operation.
• Precedents from the UK and abroad to demonstrate how things have been done elsewhere and what the outcomes were.
• Regular reviews to test and evolve principles with end users and pharmacist feedback.
• The method of communication and dissemination of design guidance.

Eleanor Brough is an architect at Sarah Wigglesworth Architects working across multiple sectors, guiding projects from inception to completion. She enjoys working collaboratively and believes design should be people focused and developed through meaningful multi-disciplinary engagement. For more information on the Architecture of Pharmacies project please visit www.architectureofpharmacies.com