Our client, Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundations Trust, has commissioned the design and build of a new Old People’s Mental Health Unit (OPMH) on the site of the existing Alderney Hospital in Poole, Dorset.
Challenge
Provide new facilities to cater for an older demographic
To create a state-of-the-art surgical centre replacing facilities dating as early as 1940.
Solution
Designed for well-being and comfort
This will be a stand-alone facility, located within a wooded area to the rear of the site. The unit will provide 20 bedrooms together with amenity spaces, including an external central courtyard, and associated therapy and treatment rooms together with staff and administration facilities.
The building is predominantly single storey, with a plant room at lower ground floor level, taking advantage of the sloping nature of the existing site. It is envisaged that the structure will predominantly be a traditional load-bearing masonry building with precast concrete units at ground floor level and timber joists to create the flat roof. A large oculus will be incorporated into the roof structure to allow daylight into the centre of the building via the open courtyard and a discrete structural steel frame will be included in this area to create the necessary open plan spaces and allow floor to ceiling glazing to the surrounding corridors. Connection to the existing St Brelade’s building will be facilitated via an external, open sided canopy structure.
Calcinotto provided both civil and structural engineering consultancy services for this development.
- Categories Healthcare
