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© NHS
Various stages of construction of maternity new-build and atrium- style entrance
I
t was with the cries of a newborn baby that Lister Hospital announced the final arrival on 17 October 2011 of its new state-of-the-art £16.5 million maternity unit.
The completed project at the hospital in Stevenage,
Hertfordshire, features a new building as well as the refurbish- ment of an existing building. The two parts of the maternity unit are linked by a striking, elliptical-shaped entrance structure – which has already been dubbed The Egg by the midwives. Funded by the Department of Health for the East and North
Hertfordshire NHS Trust, the new set-up means that while women will continue to receive ante- and post-natal care close to where they live at the trust’s other hospitals – the QEII in Welwyn Garden City and Hertford County Hospital – from now on, around 5,500 hospital births per year will all be at the Lister site. Jim Haigh, director of healthcare at AD Architects, explains
that – as ever in acute hospitals – it was essential to maintain the clinical service throughout the whole period of building. Work had to be done in phases, with careful consultation and planning with medical staff, to allow smooth transitions and operational continuity. September 2009 was the start date for construction of the
new two-storey building. In December 2010, the first phase of the maternity changes saw neonatal services, theatres, delivery suites and administration move temporarily into that new building. A second phase in September 2011 involved neonatal and theatres leaving the new building and returning to their
© NHS
former home in the old building, which by now had been remodelled and refurbished. Finally, a month later, the slightly adapted new building
opened again as the home for a consultant-led unit and a mid- wife-led unit for mothers with lower risk pregnancies. The new-build part of the maternity unit flanks the northern
boundary of the Lister site, with views over fields, and provides a sheltered courtyard in which the new entrance building sits. The clinical part of the new-build is on two floors, but there is a third level plant room. The frame of the first two floors is in situ concrete – both columns and flat soffit slabs. As Haigh says: “This is essential to the long-term adaptability
of the building and the immediate fire resistance and acoustic properties of dividing partitions.” The plant room has a concrete in situ slab with a steel-framed
lightweight insulated panel cladding. Exteriors of the new-build parts of the maternity unit are a
mixture of structurally insulated panels (a sandwich of colour- coated aluminium and phenolic foam), brickwork and western red cedar rainscreen cladding. The roofing is a Kingspan insu- lated panel, where the roof is pitched. Where it is flat it is Sarnafil G single-ply membrane. The Egg, which is a steel-framed structure, also features large
glass windows, plus double-storey western red cedar aerofoil sec- tion vertical louvres. The result is a welcoming two-storey inter- nal space that is flooded with natural light. Haigh says: “The louvres are an essential element in reducing
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