Work is underway on the new national children's hospital despite ongoing controversy about its planned location at St James's Hospital in Dublin.

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has appointed the international design practice, BDP, as architects. It will work with Irish partners O'Connell Mahon Architects to design the 384-bed hospital.

According to Health Minister, Leo Varadkar, this marks ‘another major milestone' for the new hospital.

"I expect the design team to finish its work in early summer (2015) in order to secure planning permission and begin site clearance and enabling works next year at St James's. Ireland's children deserve a world-class hospital. We've been promising it and talking about it for far too long. Let's get building," he commented.

He added that work will also start in the hospital's planned satellite centres in Tallaght and Blanchardstown in 2015.

The new hospital will provide 384 inpatient beds, including 62 critical care beds, and 85 daycare beds. It will also include 14 theatres, ED (emergency department) facilities and purpose-built accommodation for parents.

The design team will be led by Benedict Zucchi, a renowned children's healthcare architect. He said that the plan is to create a ‘hospital without precedent'.

"We are aiming to create a hospital without precedent, the finest medical facilities in a sustainable building, featuring a sequence of spaces inside and out where children's creativity and freedom of body and mind thrives. It's about delivering the best environment for care and treatment to flourish," he commented.

He noted that while all hospital projects are complex, paediatric hospitals ‘pose a number of unique challenges because of the nature and age-range of the children and young people, and the close participation of their extended families'.

"We know from our work on hospitals and schools that children are particularly sensitive to the quality of their surroundings, so design considerations to do with colour, light, scale, views, which are important in all buildings, are doubly so in a paediatric hospital," he explained.

The design team now plans to begin an engagement process with the hospital's various stakeholders, including children, their families, staff, patient advocacy groups and Dublin City Council.

"This process will consider the needs, views, and wishes for the new children's hospital and this insight will be used to inform the design vision," Ms Zucchi said.

The road to building this new hospital has been a bumpy one to say the least. The Mater Hospital in Dublin was originally chosen as the site, however following the rejection of planning permission by An Bord Pleanala, the Government decided to instead build it at St James's.

However, some interest groups are insisting that, like the Mater, the St James's site is not suitable and the hospital should be built elsewhere.