Armitage comes to infirmary’s aid

Glasgow-based Armitage Associates has completed a £1.5m revamp of the main concourse at the city’s Royal Infirmary, providing a new reception for the Queen Elizabeth building, the primary outpatients entrance.

The centrepiece of the overhaul is a five-panel, 18m by 3m photographic mural by Glasgow artist Nichol Wheatley. Suspended from a scaffold-style rail, it creates the illusion of space behind the installation and light spilling in.

According to Armitage Associates partner Jeremy Armitage, the light source behind the mural helps illuminate an area that receives no natural daylight.

The impetus for the brief was the hospital’s wish to relocate its medical records to an area partly occupied by the original concourse. It then expanded to tackle what Armitage describes as the ‘grotty’ concourse interiors.