Hull Oncology & Haematology Unit, Castle Hill Hospital – Chairman’s Award, East Riding of Yorkshire Council 2009, Gold Award – RIBA Yorkshire Awards 2009, Chairman’s Award, East Riding of Yorkshire Council 2009, The RIBA Design Award – Best New Buiding, The White Rose Award – Gold Medal, The White Rose Client of the Year, Building Services (Medium Firm), Building Services Award 2009 – Highly Commended, The White Rose Landscape Award – Highly Commended
Shortlisted for 'Building Services' at the ACE Engineering Excellence Awards 2009
Hull Oncology and Haematology Unit at Castle Hill Hospital PFI represents one of the largest capital investments in the region for the past 100 years. It is a UK Centre of Excellence for the treatment of patients with cancer and blood disorders in a catchment area that encompasses around 1.2 million people.
The scheme was procured under the Government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and was delivered within a 2.5 year period. 18 months of intensive design development took place prior to financial closure to confirm price and requirements and ensure a ‘Value For Money’ concept was produced.
The whole process involved close collaboration between the Project Team and the Trust’s team of clinicians, patients and architectural advisors. The result - a low energy, innovative hospital design which blends in with its surroundings and which creates a soothing and patient focussed environment.
The unit consists of five adjoining ward areas housing 116 in-patient beds, out-patient care, a drop-in centre, a chemotherapy day hospital, six radiotherapy rooms and pathology, pharmacy and medical physics facilities.
Energy Approach
Designing for energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways of reducing the environmental impact of a healthcare facility, hence the reasoning behind the orientation of the building and the particular arrangement of internal departments.
The Design Team deliberately planned to use the downward sloping, north-facing site to best advantage, by placing the plant accommodation at the southern most and upper level of the site. This acts as a 'solar shade' and allows natural ventilation to be maximised.
A number of detailed computer model simulation studies undertaken by Hulleys demonstrate the effectiveness of how natural ventilation can lead to acceptable internal temperatures when temperatures of 25°C are likely to be experienced for those areas which are naturally ventilated.
Particular attention has been paid to optimising air movement to ward areas. Natural ventilation in ward rooms is boosted by automatically increasing the extract air change rate from the adjacent en-suite facilities.
This method of value engineering makes best use of extract systems which must be installed and running in any base design scheme but, by simply 'over sizing' these systems, a positive benefit will be achieved in limiting the number of summertime hours when internal temperatures greater than 25°C shall be experienced.
The underlying philosophy of the M&E design was to provide a safe and comfortable environment via the following key elements;
· Ensuring systems were as energy efficient as possible;
· Limit environmental impact;
· Provide appropriate and simplistic automatic controls;
· Provide inherent expansion capability;
· Ensure adequate maintenance space and flexibility;
· Resilience philosophy capable of dealing with many supply failure scenarios.
Notable technical challenges experienced included the difficult topology on the hillside location, high water table and an extremely complex construction programme with phased access and handover dates.
David Kitching, Head of PFI Development at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, has provided the following testimonials from end-users;
“A superb new Oncology unit, not only an excellent building, location and views, but also the décor and calming atmosphere which has been carefully provided.”
“….you must be very proud to have completed such a remarkable building and facility.”
“This is indeed testimony to the design criteria having been met and supports the comment from the BBC that this is an iconic building. “
