01924 498557Princess Alexandra Hospital – Alex Lounge Wellbeing and Office space
We were asked to design, manufacture, and install a 2-storey modular building.
Project
Alex Lounge Wellbeing and Office space
Client
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Contract
Alex Lounge Wellbeing and Office space
Site Programme
14 weeks
Requirement
The requirement was for the ground floor to be an area centred around staff welfare consisting of dining facilities, a yoga room, and bright, relaxing breakout areas. The 1st floor was agile office space with meeting and training rooms.
As with most modular projects, the key to the success was down to the programme. The client had stated they wanted the facility completed and occupied within 5 months.
The programme was carefully planned with both Actiform Project team and the client project team.
As with all our projects, we commenced a series of meetings with all stakeholders which were held weekly from award through to completion to ensure all roles and responsibilities were defined and that we could effectively manage client expectations.
Location
The location of the new building was in the centre of the site, surrounded by multiple operational departments which had to remain open and accessible. One of these departments was the Prenatal ward which cared for very premature babies. We were conscious of the impact of our work on this department in particular and as such we chose to involve the prenatal management staff in some of our meetings. We felt this was the right thing to do to gain understanding of what their busiest times were, times we should be avoiding for noisy or disruptive works and what we could do to minimise the impact on their department.
Due to the vulnerability of the babies, we could not move them and decant the ward. Our original lift plan was changed to accommodate this ward and resulted in us craning over the existing hospital.
Prior to commencing the enabling works, we were made aware of a tree that sat in the middle of the site. It was clear, this tree would need removing for us to carry out the works. However it came to our attention that it was originally planted in memory of a member of staff who sadly lost her life.
We didn’t want to dispose of the tree and agreed a suitable location on the site with the Trust, where we replanted it.
As the primary use of the new building was for the staff at the hospital to relax in, we wanted to make the space as comfortable and relaxing as possible. This included bespoke imagery on the walls on the ground floor.