Ward 76 - Maternity Hospital Design

Interior design and public art for Ward 76, transitional care for St Michael's Maternity Hospital in Bristol, March 2025 - March 2026
Commissioned by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust's Arts & Culture Programme
This project has been generously funded by Bristol & Weston Hospital Charity

I am thrilled to have completed the design of a new interiors and public art scheme for Ward 76, the transitional care unit for pre-term babies and their families at St Michael's Hospital. The design will encompass the ward corridor, 3 x four bay rooms, 3 x bedrooms, the reception area and the Parent & Baby Room. 

Following consultation with staff and patients on the ward, feedback and consultation from hospital and healthcare design researchers (Dr Victoria Bates, Prof Maria Fannin, Dr Jenny Crane and Dr Rebecka Fleetwood-Smith), and collage and poetry workshops with mothers and babies I created three paintings which have been printed as wallpaper throughout the ward. 

The paintings HEATHER, BILLOWING and HORIZON (all 100cm x 50cm, acrylic on canvas) were painted from a feeling of space, nature, and scale. HEATHER evokes walks around Bristol's nature reserves; BILLOWING could be a merging of rolling hills and tree tops with clouds, and HORIZON is inspired by the view from St Michael's, bringing the outside in and remembering the temporary nature of the hospital stay. 

Alongside the wallpaper, a series of collages and poems by mothers who have had their babies at St Michael's have been framed and featured above the beds across the ward as a reminder of those who have come before and will come after us - that we are not alone. 

The ward design was installed in March 2026 - please get in touch if you would like to view the design in person.

The In Between

Thresholds expanding
A merging of worlds
Yours into mine
As we slowly unfurl.

This liminal realm
Where night and day blend
This delicate line
A new navigation.

Encased in blue
The light grapples through
Outside leaves face the sun
Inside I face you. 

Ellie Shipman