Goodmayes Hospital Mental Health Unit

Metsec’s steel framing system (SFS) has been used to provide the exterior framework – infill and parapet – for a new Mental Health Unit at Goodmayes Hospital in Ilford.

Project: Goodmayes Hospital Mental Health Unit, Ilford
Category: Healthcare
Products: SFS lightweight steel framing
Scale: 2-storey healthcare unit costing £28million.
Client: North East London Foundation Trust
Architect: Devereux
Contractor: Kier
Engineer: PEP Civil & Structures Installer: Quad Building Services

The £28m unit has been constructed by Kier London for the North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) and will enable NELFT to rationalise some of its existing services as well as provide brand new facilities designed to deliver modern in-patient mental healthcare for the people of Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge.

The new unit is situated adjacent to an existing building and provides five new in-patient wards over two floors, as well as a shared central hub and new entrance to both buildings. The surrounding grounds are landscaped to provide garden areas for service users and staff.

The design for the unit, which has been created by a team of design and construction specialists, including Devereux Architects, working in partnership with service users and staff, takes into account the impact of environment on how service users feel and how staff are able to care for them. The aim has been to create an environment that promotes recovery, which current thinking suggests includes bright, colourful, light modern wards with gardens, so that service users and visitors feel optimistic about their future.

In line with the contemporary design, the new unit has been constructed using Metsec’s SFS lightweight galvanised steel infill walling rather than traditional blockwork. This forms a secondary structure which is fixed between the primary superstructure, usually at the slab edge to allow insulation and external finishes to be installed continuously outside the main structural frame.

This method of construction offers a number of advantages: It is fast and cost-effective to install, the building envelope is completed earlier in the construction cycle so that interior fit-out of the lower storeys can begin as higher storeys are created, and SFS infill walling is lighter than block work which reduces the depth of foundations required. The impact on the environment is also reduced as the steel is recyclable and infill walling can be delivered to site with considerably fewer vehicle journeys than blockwork, needs less storage space on site and requires no wet work or welding.

Research recently carried out by Faithful & Gould has demonstrated a cost saving of up to 39% when using SFS compared with traditional blockwork. The research report may be downloaded below.

Take a look at Metsec’s SFS Framing Products