History:
The Northwick Park project involved the development of a district general hospital integrated with a clinical research centre. It was a joint project between a North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and the Medical Research Council.

The hospital was planned to accommodate 815 beds serving both a district and national needs. The district service for in and outpatients including general medicine, surgery, orthopaedic surgery, gynaecology, maternity, psychiatry children, older people and rehabilitation. The national service was to be carried out in partnership with the clinical research centre for more specialised treatment.

Architecture:
The hospital was developed on a site in the London Borough of Brent and Harrow. The architects were Llewelyn - Davies Weeks and the project was developed during the 1960s.

The plan was to integrate the hospital and research centre into one building complex. At the heart of a series of linked buildings, there was a seven storey block containing the wards and main research institute. Individual buildings were connected by a two storey internal 'street': the upper part was dedicated to staff and patients and the lower for services and the distribution of supplies.

The classic 'theory of indeterminacy' was encapsulated in the plan. It allowed each building to 'grow with order and change with calm'. A closely knit but independent series of structures, each capable of separate growth could respond to unforseeable changes and demands. John Weeks said that ' user studies of function are not only by themselves a sound basis for hospital design. Function changes so rapidly that designers should no longer aim for an optimum fit between building and function. The real requirement is to design a building that will inhibit change of function least, and not one that will fit specific function best.'
Ref James Paul and Tatton Brown William. (1986) p5

The strategy proved very influential although the planning principle was not directly applicable to inner city sites with higher densities and scarcity of land where other ideas about universal space were being developed as an alternative approach. Here, a series of structurally uninterrupted floors with movable partitions and adjustable services could adapt to functional needs. Greenwich Hospital developed these ideas including large compact air conditioned floors with sandwiched service floors and large clear spans.