16 NSC
Nov/Dec 19
Plans to deliver a modern, stateof
the-art health and care centre
for the populace of Greenock are
progressing on schedule as the steel
frame for a new facility is now complete.
The £21M centre, located on the site of
a former academy, will bring together four
existing GP practices, district nurses, health
visitors, dental and podiatry departments
and a number of out-patient clinics,
alongside a community café.
Hub West Scotland Chairman John
Brown says: “The current facilities at
Greenock Health Centre are out-dated and
not ideal for the provision of modern health
and social care services.
“We need accommodation that helps us
deliver services where there is an emphasis
in delivering more care outside hospitals
and in local communities.
“Therefore, the new purpose-built centre
has been designed to be much more than a
simple replacement of the existing facility.
It has the potential to bring together the
key elements from a range of professions to
tackle health inequalities, improve health
and contribute to social regeneration.”
Including ground floor, the steel-framed
centre is a four-storey structure measuring
approximately 60m x 50m. Its stability is
derived from cross bracing, predominantly
located around stairwells.
Most of the floors have very few internal
columns, thereby providing the clear
open-plan layout that the client wanted.
The longest beams are 11m, and the steel
members support metal decking to form a
composite flooring solution.
“A steel-framed solution was chosen
not just for its spanning qualities, but
also because we wanted minimal internal
columns to provide a flexible design
whereby partition walls can be moved
in the future if room sizes need to be
reconfigured,” explains Hoskins Architects’
Alastair Cassell.
This large nearly square-shaped
building is also arranged around an open
centre, which will accommodate an inner
landscaped courtyard.
The courtyard, like the building will be
stepped, as the entire site slopes from north
to south and from east to west. From the
south-east corner of the overall site to the
north west corner, there is a 15m drop in
ground level, while the gradient within the
footprint of the building is 7m from south
to north.
The severe topography of the site
meant the project needed an extensive
groundworks programme, which included
the construction of a retaining wall
that extends around the majority of the
Healthcare
Frame keeps project
in good health
A steel-framed solution has provided a new health centre with a
future-proofed flexible design and the desired clear spans. Martin
Cooper reports from Greenock.
/Floor_systems#Composite_slabs
/Braced_frames#Vertical_bracing
/Steel_construction_products#Decking_for_floors
/Healthcare_buildings
/Braced_frames
/Healthcare_buildings#Flexibility_and_adaptability