Architecture & construction
Estates and Facilities at the Trust, is demanding in terms of expectations – he likes to ensure that he has looked at every potential possibility before agreeing on a solution – but we have an excellent relationship.” BAM Construction has used local labour wherever possible. Rob Bailey said: “Currently 72 per cent of the workforce on site live within the hospital’s locality, which has some considerable benefits. For instance, when you need that extra push, you have people who are happy to stay on site a little longer to get things completed.”
Keeping a balance between
quality, cost, and future-proofing Keeping a balance between quality, cost, and future-proofing, were also essential elements. For example, it had originally been planned that the new second floor, 24-bedded critical care unit would comprise 16 open plan beds – in four four-bedded bays, and eight isolation/ individual rooms, seven with positive and negative airflow in the lobby spaces. Rob Bailey said: “However, Paul
Fitzpatrick asked us how the facility would look, and how much it would cost, if we went 100 per cent single bed. With the architects, we thus put together some potential options, illustrated by rendered images. One potential room design incorporated a glass screen at the front of the room running up to a door height of some 2.1 metres, with ‘legs’ running up above the ceiling void, and the structure going into it. This option also envisaged solid partitions between the rooms, but the rooms not being fully isolated, with screens in the wall partitions allowing a view from one room to the other.
Various iterations “Having looked at this option, and fully costed it, the next iteration was to incorporate a larger section of glazing at the front of the room, but to leave the structure open above the ceiling void, and have solid walls in between. The next option was to build the rooms so that you had complete acoustic isolation and the whole structure constructed right up the soffit. We costed all these options, and let the Trust look at these, and ended up with a hybrid.” In the end the deliberations culminated in the new 24-bed Critical Care Department (CCD) comprising seven full isolation rooms, five single rooms, and 12 open plan rooms, but future-proofed to allow other single rooms to be added later with minimum disruption. Rob Bailey explained that, following this iterative process, the new CCD’s single rooms will feature plasterboard walls taken up to a bulkhead design, with glazed ‘Blink’ glass sections (from specialist in ‘intelligent’ glass, Blink) incorporated in the upper ‘half’ of each side wall. He said: “Prior to specifying these ‘window walls’,
Construction work in progress in July 2014.
we had visited critical care units in several other hospitals with some of the Trust’s project team, and seen floor-to-ceiling glazing. This had its benefits, but in our view left nowhere on the walls for cupboards, or for people to sit etc. This led us to question what benefit this full-height glazing afforded. We thus value- engineered the glazing to run to about 1.1 m high in the upper section of the room’s side walls, which also helped us keep the scheme on budget. “Throughout the design process we involved patient groups, but the key was to ensure that functionally everything would work, and that the clinical leads and matrons for the departments knew exactly what they would be getting.” The front of the CCD’s single rooms are also glazed.
Extensive use of BIM The scheme saw the BAM team make extensive use of BIM. Rob Bailey elaborated: “We used Navisworks and Revit software; one of BIM’s major advantages is that it gives you visualisation, which speeds sign-off by all concerned.” He went on to show 3D BIM images of the various single room options considered for the critical care unit, adding: “These give everyone different things – from a construction standpoint, the BIM plans communicate to our works team how the various elements will co-ordinate, and also, when combined – as here – with the use of point cloud surveys, help to avoid clashes that could occur before we actually start on site. CAD software is traditionally in two dimensions. Having been in construction for 28 years, I find it fairly easy to visualise things in two dimensions, but it is different if I am explaining how part of a new facility will look to, say, a nurse or clinician. Put the plans into 3D ‘walkthrough’ images, however, and these personnel can then clearly see how a space will look. This also greatly reduced the number of user group meetings we needed.
Modelling and information come together
Construction manager – North West, at BAM Construction, Rob Bailey: “At the outset, when the Trust first discussed the project with us, it was clear the personnel involved knew the sort of facility they wanted.”
“Our use of BIM on this project really allowed the modelling and the information streams to come together,” Rob Bailey continued. “The BIM visualisations of the CCD’s single rooms enabled us to arrive at a solution that gives pretty much the same visibility as the original full screens proposed, but with more flexibility on the walls.” The ‘wall windows’ incorporate Blink glass to ensure patient privacy. The glass changes from transparent to opaque at
Health Estate Journal 41September 2016
©BAM Construction
©BAM Construction
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