The £17.9m contract is for a new Women & Children's Centre at North Middlesex University Hospital, working to main contractor Kier.
Due for completion later this year, the scheme is part of a reorganisation of hospital services in the boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. Architect and project manager is AHP.
The project, which was procured under the ProCure21+ framework, is being built off site at the Yorkon production centre in York. The project managers expect this approach to reduce disruption to patient care and to ensure the build programme is finished before the busy winter period.
The building will provide a larger consultant-led delivery unit with additional high dependency beds, two new obstetrics theatres, a neonatal unit, triage centre, women’s outpatient department, a midwife-led birthing unit with four birthing pool rooms, a postnatal ward with discharge lounge, and a transitional care unit to support neonatal care. A roof-top plant room will be located on the second floor.
The scheme will be constructed using the new Yorkon off-site building system and will comprise 152 steel-framed modules up to 18m long and in many different sizes and configurations to suit the building’s design and site. The units will be craned into position with doors, windows, first fix electrics and plumbing, and a concrete floor all pre-installed.
Yorkon director Simon Ambler said: “This is our largest ever contract and its complexities demonstrate just what is now achievable with an advanced off-site building system.”
Kier Construction project manager Clive Watson said: “The biggest advantage of off-site construction on this project is speed. We anticipate it will reduce the delivery time by around three months enabling us to have the new facilities up and running ahead of the busy winter period. It will also bring quality benefits because it allows so much of the construction to take place off site in a controlled factory environment that is not affected by poor weather conditions. Our experience with Yorkon and their level of engagement from the outset has been very positive to date.”
The new building will have rendered façades, ribbon glazing around the perimeter of the first floor and a large atrium entrance spanning two storeys, with light wells providing further daylight inside. There is also full height glazing to the stair towers on each of the two wings.
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