News

  

A new mental health unit opened last Thursday 17th March near Cardiff which aims to bring a "calming, warming and welcoming" environment for patients.

This new hospital is located on the Llandough Hospital campus. The inpatient accommodation is provided in 135 single bed en-suite rooms, across 10 wards of between 10 and 15 rooms. The layout allows for flexible boundaries between adjacent wards whilst maintaining gender privacy, dignity and security. The hospital has an Intensive Care Unit adjacent to treatment wards, also assessment, treatment and recovery wards, and low secure assessment and rehabilitation wards. Also there is a Neuropsychiatry Inpatient Unit with specialist facilities to support clients with acquired brain injuries, dedicated addiction inpatient unit, therapy services, and clinical and non-clinical support services.

With the Client, and our fellow design consultants, Powell Dobson have, from the outset, sought to develop a sustainable and "energy efficient design strategy" as a core element in our design process. We worked towards BREEAM "Excellent" ensuring the issues of sustainability, passive energy saving measures and opportunities for the user renewable energy sources are fully embedded.

This new facility is predominantly two storey's in height, and 'steps down' the slope of the site allowing the addition of a partial second floor and a partial under storey for non patient facilities. The layout incorporates a progression through the scheme via a public access concourse entrance through increasing levels of privacy, secutiry and quietness.

The project was delivered in a fully collaborative Level 2 BIM environment with our model data being used by the main envelope subcontractor in their off site manufacturing processes.