Morag Myerscough redesigns Sheffield Children's Hospital bedrooms with geometric interior patterns

Acclaimed British designer, Morag Myerscough has created bespoke bedrooms for Sheffield children’s hospital.

The designer who previously created a giant beach ball for Old Street roundabout and a ten-metre camera obscura for Mexico City square, embarked on her first bedroom design, creating schemes for 46 ensuite bedrooms, as well as six multi-occupancy bays. The rooms are part of a series of commissions from Artfelt, a children’s hospital charity arts programme with a mission to reshape patient spaces with art and design.

“I loved the challenge,” says Morag. “They’re really complex compared to corridors or more public spaces – especially in a children’s hospital because you’re creating for patients who have various conditions and there are a lot more controls involved.” The layout of the rooms has been created by Avanti Architects and use four alternate schemes designed by Morag, in collaboration with nurses and patients of the hospital. The result is a considerate and cheerful design concept, using geometric shapes. The colour palette was decided by Morag and Cat Powell of Artfelt, using statistics of which colours patients preferred, and consultation from nurses on the clinical factors that needed to be considered.

“Although the rooms are for children I didn’t want them to be childish because children of all different age groups will be staying in them,” the designer explains. “I also wanted to create somewhere parents would be happy to spend time too. It was just about making a bedroom that you felt good to be in…To make an environment that makes a difficult situation even remotely better – I can’t do work that’s more important than that really.”