Healthcare

Hospitals, clinical buildings, practices. High equipment density and an operation that never stops.

What we take on

• Structural design for new build, extension and added storeys
• Alteration and change of use during live hospital operation
• Verification for equipment loads, radiation shielding and imaging
• Acoustic, vibration and fire performance verification

The equipment governs the structure

MRI, CT and linear accelerators bring mass, shielding requirements and vibration limits with them. A shielded slab weighs a multiple of a normal one; an MRI demands freedom from deflection and vibration and a steel-free zone. Those rooms fix the grid, not the other way round – and they have to be located before the concept.

Alteration during operation is the normal case

Vibration, dust and noise are not merely unpleasant in a hospital, they are operationally relevant: theatres, intensive care and imaging all react to each of the three. We plan phases with vibration limits, monitoring points and fallback positions, agreed with the technical management.

Flexibility

Medicine changes faster than buildings. A generous grid, few internal loadbearing walls and load reserves are the cheaper construction over time.