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Healthcare

Princess Alexandra Hospital – Alex Lounge Wellbeing and Office space

Actiform designed, manufactured and installed a two-storey modular staff wellbeing and office building for Princess Alexandra Hospital — delivering dining facilities, a yoga room, breakout spaces and agile office accommodation in 14 weeks, on a live hospital site surrounded by operational departments, directly above a neonatal ward.

Expertise
  • Staff welfare and agile workspace design for NHS environments
  • Complex logistics on constrained live hospital sites
  • Stakeholder-led programme management from award to completion
Deliverables
  • Ground floor: dining facilities, yoga room, and relaxing breakout areas
  • First floor: agile office space with meeting and training rooms
  • Bespoke wall imagery and interiors designed to promote staff wellbeing

Princess Alexandra Hospital needed a dedicated space for staff to rest, recharge and work — but the only available location was in the centre of a busy operational site, surrounded by live clinical departments. The project had to be delivered within 5 months without disrupting any department, with particular care required around the on-site prenatal ward caring for highly vulnerable premature babies.

Challenge

Solution

  1. 01/

    Challenge

    The prenatal ward — directly adjacent to the build zone — could not be decanted or closed. Premature babies cannot simply be moved, and the ward’s operational patterns had to be respected throughout the programme.

    Solution

    Actiform proactively engaged the prenatal ward management team directly, involving them in project meetings to understand their busiest periods and the times when noisy or disruptive works needed to be avoided. When the original crane lift plan was found to conflict with the ward’s position, Actiform redesigned the lift sequence to crane over the existing hospital building instead, removing the risk entirely.

  2. 02/

    Challenge

    A memorial tree — planted in memory of a member of hospital staff — stood in the middle of the build footprint and could not simply be felled.

    Solution

    Actiform took the initiative to identify a suitable new location on the hospital site and arranged for the tree to be carefully replanted, preserving its meaning for the staff who remembered their colleague. It was the right thing to do — and it set the tone for how the whole project was approached.

  3. 03/

    Challenge

    A staff wellbeing facility is only as good as how it makes people feel. Function alone wasn’t enough — the space needed to genuinely promote rest and relaxation for NHS staff under significant pressure.

    Solution

    Actiform designed the interiors with comfort as the priority: bright, open breakout areas, a dedicated yoga room, and bespoke imagery on the ground floor walls — creating an environment that feels deliberately different from the clinical spaces staff spend their working day in. Weekly stakeholder meetings from award through to completion kept all parties aligned and ensured the finished space met the Trust’s expectations.

Our Approach

Actiform managed the full programme from design through to installation, with weekly meetings held between the Actiform project team and the client project team from award to completion. Roles, responsibilities and expectations were defined early, and the programme was planned in detail around the operational constraints of the site — including the prenatal ward’s schedule, crane logistics, and the careful handling of the memorial tree.

The result is a building that exists to serve the people who serve patients — delivered on time, with care, and with genuine sensitivity to the community it sits within.

The Results

14 Weeks completed

0Departments disrupted

1Memorial tree

Working closely with our estates and clinical leads, Actiform supported the design and build of a new modular emergency care unit at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. The team helped us move away from traditional, siloed structures towards a flexible, technology-enabled space, working hand in hand with our design team to deliver a future-focused build, fully integrated into hospital operations.

Pasqualino Risi

Associate director of Estates and Facilities, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust