SPECIAL REPORT
projects
to the landscape. “It doesn’t feel claustrophobic at all. “The whole impact of the building and the way it has been designed means you can orientate yourself very easily. “There are no long corridors, no signage left and right. It’s all very simple.”
Forward thinking With a project which has taken 10 years to deliver – during which time clinical pathways and technology have changed considerably – there are obvious concerns that the design may already be out of date.
But the team is confident its forward- thinking, clinically-driven approach will mean the building can evolve in the future. Ziemer said: “The overall concept is one of standardisation and flexibility. “In terms of keeping up with clinical advancements and progress, we designed a modular structure working with repeatable rooms.
“As such, outpatient consulting
rooms and specialist testing rooms, for example, are exactly the same area, which gives the flexibility so if you make a change you are able to do the same thing in every room. “Specialist testing rooms, such as
Entry into the building is designed around two main atria which draw natural light deep into the building.
ultrasound, body tilt etc, are designed to meet every standard and are roughly the same size, as are outpatient rooms. “If you needed to change the function of the room in the future, say you do not need so many outpatient clinic rooms but more space for testing, we know we can get that into the current footprint
“It is the same for our hot floors,
where a Cath lab suite could become operating theatres or vice versa.” And, in the building there is also quite a lot of ‘soft’ space for administrative functions. These could be repurposed in the future if there was demand for more clinical space.
Advances in technology The team even worked with all the major specialist suppliers of key equipment such as scanners, to gather the space and technical requirements for each item.
The design of the rooms ensures that, whichever piece of equipment the trust might wish to procure, it will fit into any of these standard rooms. Ziemer said: “We started designing in
2010 and by making sure we understand all the requirements, we can feel very confident that the trust can choose anything on the market and put it in these rooms.
“Such a long planning process does not mean you have to end up with a white elephant.” She concludes: “We were given a very-unique opportunity to completely redesign the way the trust delivers healthcare.
“That doesn’t happen very often and it has been an amazing journey for us and for the trust.
“What we have now is a really- beautiful and unique building that is very practical and the people we have spoken to absolutely love it.”
The project at a glance
Start on site: February 2015 Completion: February 2019 Internal floor area: 33,000sq m Procurement route: PFI Construction cost: £200m Architect: HOK
Client: Royal Papworth Foundation NHS Trust and Skanska Main contractor: Skanska Structural engineer: Skanska Tech
M&E consultant: troup bywaters + anders QS: Skanska Fire consultant: Fire Ingenuity Landscape consultant: FIRA Acoustic consultant: SRL Acoustic products: Rockfon CDM co-ordinator: Capita
Approved building inspector: HCD Bureau Veritas CAD software used: Revit
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