Howorth Air Technology’s role in a £10m modular design and build project at King’s College Hospital is nearing completion. King’s is an acute care facility in the London Borough of Southwark, and is also a major teaching hospital. Howorth worked closely throughout the project with its modular building partner, Elliott Off-Site Building Solutions.
The project started as a single modular theatre, but Trust requirements changed and the scheme grew considerably. The finished building contains four storeys and incorporates two specialist liver theatres and first stage recovery (all with concrete floors), isolation rooms, single bed occupancy rooms and general ward areas for some 50 patients. All plant is housed externally on the roof behind plant screens or in rooftop plantrooms. Approximately 80% of the building services installation into the modules took place off-site at Elliott’s Yorkshire factory.
With some 140 pre-serviced modules to deliver and erect on a very constrained site and hospital access required 24 hours a day, the project was a significant challenge. A design and construction programme of just 24 weeks ensured that critical operational dates were met and disruption to the hospital kept to a minimum.
Howorth and Elliott provided a full turnkey solution and worked closely with project architects, Architon. The scheme complies with all current HBN and HTM regulations and, with the inclusion of solar energy generation, energy efficient heating, lighting and air conditioning installations, as well as very efficient building insulation and structural air tightness, it will achieve the highest possible BREEAM rating for a building of this type.
Howorth has past experience of providing fast track specialist modular facilities, specifically operating theatres. The firm’s introduction of Elliott, a high volume specialist healthcare modular contractor, to the project created a team that the Trust considered would deliver a successful new facility for the hospital.
