Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) is built on a green field site at Colney Lane in Norfolk. The site is a significant green amenity; it is a desirable and useful facility for the hospital which serves thousands of patients, staff and visitors a year. Just as the NNUH buildings have a clear function, these green spaces require the same level of understanding of function.
The site is surrounded by green fields; however, due to the nature of a large, new build hospital surrounded by open expanses of car parks, the reflective nature of glass, the heat held and emitted by our walls, tarmac and pathways, the heat the building omits, poor quality top soil and other factors which which are exacerbated by the sheer numbers of footfall impacting the ground itself – there is much work to do in conserving the tree stock.
The site offers several walks, gardens and a woodland ‘fringe’ which has become a walkway. There is also a significant number of rare elms.