The main block sits
atop a car park podium
NSC 25
April 18
incorporation of rehabilitation services into
the scheme is made possible. It shows that it
is essential to rethink healthcare design, and
there is a clear need to provide spaces to be
continuously adaptable to the future needs
of healthcare requirements and technology.
Circle Health successfully responds to these
challenges,” he said.
Phase One, which amounted to some
550t of steel and 6,885m2 of metal decking,
which was supplied to steelwork contractor
Caunton Engineering by Composite
Profiles, was completed at the end March.
Phase Two, which will add another 375t
of steel and a further 6,200m2 of metal
decking, will begin in May.
“A second phase was always on the cards
during the initial design, but it only became
a reality once the construction programme
got under way,” explains Simons Group
Project Manager Stuart Partlow. “It’s
not necessarily ideal to have Phase Two
steelwork being erected above areas that
are already erected and occupied by other
trades, but we will have a suitable logistical
working plan in place.”
As far as the project’s Phase One
steelwork is concerned it has been designed
to accept further phases. As well as having
slightly larger members than would
ordinarily be needed, Caunton has prewelded
a series of stubs to the top of the
uppermost columns and beams. This will
allow the easy installation of Phase Two
steelwork members.
The hospital consists of three blocks,
with the main building known as
block C measuring 75m-long × 32m-wide.
Sat entirely above the concrete podium,
this structure’s steel grid pattern has been
dictated by concrete columns forming the
car park below.
Its ground floor will accommodate the
operating theatres, recovery rooms and
X-ray department. Also included in the
initial steelwork phase, a first-floor plant
area has been erected that covers just under
half of block C’s footprint.
To accommodate Phase Two, a number
of transfer beams have been included
along the ground floor ceiling to support
the column grid change for a first-floor
rehabilitation gym that will cover the
area adjacent to the plant area. Because of
the need to have a large column grid for
the exercise equipment, the grid changes
from a 7m × 15m pattern to a 15m × 15m
formation.
Phase Two will also include a block
C second floor, where the grid pattern
Healthcare
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/Steel_construction_products#Decking_for_floors
/Concept_design
/Construction#Steel_erection
/Welding
/Concept_design#Floor_grids
