Healthcare Projects > The New Birmingham Children's Hospital [HBG001]

The Children’s Hospital Burns unit and Education centre was the first project Parkstone had undertaken with principal contractor HBG UK. The Client for the scheme was The NHS Trust who had identified a requirement for a new build to cater for an expansion in their already existing facilities and services housed in a structure that dated back to the Victorian era.

Rather than attempt to blend in with the existing aesthetics of the hospital, which are imposing in there own right, the architects for the project were tasked in designing a building that went out ofit’s way to look completely different. The result was a schematic that resembled something a child would build out of Lego! Symbolic maybe but needless to say the unusual shape, logistics, interface and radical proposal came hand in hand with complexities relative to constructing such a project over 5 storeys in the form of planning, coordination, design and interface.

The scheme was located on what can only be described as a postage stamp area in the centre of Birmingham directly adjacent to the Aston Expressway and surrounded by numerous high rise buildings including a live hospital. With space at a premium compounded by location and restrictions to operations due to the sensitive environment it was imperative that all parties worked together for the project to succeed and in particular the activities carried out by Parkstone.

The Parkstone package included sub structure, super structure and external fundamentals phased over 3 visits dictated by programme and progress of the project.

Phase 1 commenced in January 2006 and constituted the bulk of the sub and superstructure activities in the form of drainage installation – reinforced foundations and ground beams – reinforced concrete lift shaft and retaining wall construction.

The primary operation was the construction of over 5000 square metres of reinforced concrete floor slabs both ground bearing and suspended. The floor slabs with a high level of temporary works input had a potential to be particularly problematic relative to the intricate design, location restrictions, weather conditions and the fact they were to be constructed to a height of 5 storeys.

All operations were completed to programme without a hitch and to a high level of specification and quality requirement.
Phase 2 and 3 involved the external finishes and although not on a massive scale the interface and existing surroundings warranted a high level of coordination and planning.

The Children’s Hospital Burns and Education Centre was completed in April 2007 within programme and to an outstanding level of quality – love it or hate it at least it is colourful!

Gallery

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Technical Drawings

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Foot Print  Floor Slab  External Layout Drainage Layout