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Swanke Hayden Connell Architects merge colour and an eco design to create a new hospital in Nottinghamshire
Swanke Hayden Connell Architects fused clinical design and new models of healthcare with architectural design expertise. Work includes extensive re-development of the existing facility at Central Nottinghamshire Hospital to create a single unified hospital comprising of 28 new wards (700 Beds - of which 50% were single rooms) and a new state-of-the-art Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, new Emergency Care and Assessment Centre with an out of hours GP service and a dedicated Women & Children's Centre.
The Diagnostic and Treatment Centre became a defining element in site arrangement, the massing and the configuration of the emerging building design. The brief for the DTC asked that we create a flexible , adaptable concept which would accommodate a vast amount of similar sized clinical units or rooms within a compacted area or footprint. Needing to maximise penetrative light in to otherwise deep plan, the opportunity to provide external and internal identity and intuitive navigation through the myriad consulting and treatment rooms called for imagination, cost modelling options and a sustainable solution.
King's Mill Hospital is already being talked about as one of the most sustainable healthcare buildings in the UK. The BREAM ‘Excellent' sustainability rating is based on numerous integrated design features, including the largest geothermal lake loop scheme in Europe and a tri-generation energy plant. These provide all the cooling without chillers and 40% of the heating requirement saving 9,600 MW/h of gas and electricity and £12,000 a year over the smaller facility that this new hospital replaces. This integrated engineering and passive eco design will reduce the hospital's carbon footprint by 400 tonnes a year . The Diagnostic and Treatment Centre benefits from an unusually innovative feature of a ‘biosphere', a passive ventilated envelope that moderates the climate of the circulation areas and allows deep penetration of natural light to all occupied areas.
King's Mill Hospital began construction in March 2005 . Phase 1 opened in July 2008 with Phase 2 being completed in November 2010 . The Hospital facility became fully Operational in April 2011.
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