NEW-BUILD FACILITIES


routes, to keep children safe. We speak with residents every month, and each day with the hospital, letting all parties know what is happening.


Demanding logistics The building is the size of the plot of land it sits on. We factored in these demanding limitations during the procurement stage to understand how this might affect the programme, and make sure that sub- contractors were aware. We arranged site visits so they could see the constraints. This enabled sound advice and prevented problems later. We needed to retain the hill and the


Service-users were keen to have access to the outside and fresh air wherever possible.


and gather an even wider pool of views to feed into the design process.


A ‘virtual group’ established Mindful that service-users would want to input in different ways, a ‘virtual group’ was also established for those unable to attend meetings or workshops. There was fantastic feedback about our engagement process, with one service-user saying: “I personally feel like I’m building the hospital myself.” Every single comment received, through both face-to-face and online channels, was logged and shared with the design team. Ryder Architecture looked to create


a multi-storey landscape, looking around elsewhere in the world to explore ideas, and coming up with proposals that reflected the service-user feedback. These included the roof terraces, and a sense of a vertical landscape. It led to an active frontage design so that the building will be more welcoming for the community. This lowers the barrier for us to integrate with them.


Designing a modern, 78-bed, inpatient mental health facility in a tight urban setting was addressed through a multi- storey solution. Service-users wanted access to outdoor space from every ward, quiet spaces, single en-suite rooms, a gym, a family visiting room, and a community café to promote social inclusion. All these facilities have been incorporated into the design, with fresh air made possible through safe and secure roof terraces, creating our vertical landscape.


Developing the design BAM developed the design, taking Ryder into its design team, and started via MS Teams in half-day or day-long workshops. It was a challenge to capture the feedback from the many people who had differing views, but over a four-month engagement period we managed to agree on several building elements, such as layouts, fixtures and fittings, and sanitaryware. This process provided valuable insight into how the facility needs to work on a


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day-to-day basis for service-users and staff, including how important it is for the building to be a community asset to help de-stigmatise mental health care. The feedback sessions highlighted


how important having access to open space and fresh air is for users. Ryder’s outdoor roof terraces are being provided with planters, flowers, and herbs. We also have some green walls on the front of the building, with a specialist watering and drainage system to keep them flourishing.


Mock-up rooms We constructed a mock-up of a typical patient room and en-suite to enable end- users to check that the room meets their requirements. Everything that will be in the finished room will be there for people to see and evaluate, reducing the risk of rooms failing to comply with the needs of the end-users, and giving the team greater flexibility to make any necessary changes. Team members learned all about the Health Technical Memorandum and NHS requirements, including the need for everything to be reduced ligature, including the shower heads and water control, so that service-users cannot cause harm to themselves We identified bespoke fixtures such as the domed digital thermostats going inside service-users’ rooms. It’s a full turnkey solution for the hospital. The design must be very robust because of the special status of the service-users.


What creating the facilities involved The site is on a slope, and very constrained on three sides. On one side is Whittington Hospital, with listed buildings including the Maternity Unit and nurses’ quarters. On the other sides are a primary school and Holbrook Close, where houses and their gardens back straight onto the site. BAM carried out extensive stakeholder engagement meetings using a 3D model of the building, and liaised with the local school on future logistics and delivery


levels, so we built up before we could go down. We planned the temporary works and changed levels to create ramps. Pre- cast brick panels are being used because there is no space to erect a scaffold or have a large team of bricklayers on site. To facilitate deliveries we created a one-way system with a pit lane at the site boundary, where we crane lift panels. Deliveries have to come in from Dartmouth Park Hill, and we only have limited access space for delivery vehicles, increasing the time it takes to offload materials. During a concrete pour, we can only put the pump in one place, and the wagons have to come down and reverse by it, meaning we can only have concrete deliveries that day. This is compounded by school drop-off and pick-up times, meaning we can only do this one task that day. We considered these from the outset, as it could have caused programme problems. We also had to plan the temporary works and co-ordinate the permanent works within these.


Sealing an old tunnel We had to dismantle, cap, and seal, an old tunnel that went across the site, from the Whittington’s Jenner building, into one of the buildings we demolished. This was used for laundry runs and services. We modelled and surveyed this beforehand, so we knew what we were dealing with.


Modern Methods of Construction The use of MMC is a big driver for the Department of Health & Social Care and UK Government. Using pre-cast brick panels means most of the windows also come fitted into the panels, so we can achieve watertightness quickly. BAM visited Thorpe (the manufacturer) to see its process, and to check the quality of the mock-up panel, which we brought to site to check against the neighbouring listed Whittington Hospital building, and so that they met Islington’s requirements for pre- cast.


All manufacturers involved utilised BIM.


This enables us to make sure that each piece of kit will fit into the space without clashing with the pipe and ductwork. BIM was used extensively in our workshops with the design teams, allowing us to see in 3D how everything in the building comes together. This has been particularly


MAY 2023 | THE NETWORK


Courtesy of Ryder Architecture


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