this was just the starting point
The brief was to build a Respite Care Holiday Centre for those who require specialist care.
The project presented a series of interesting hurdles, but our major challenge was to meet the very short build programme in order to complete the structure which would, in turn, trigger the Health Care funding.
So where did we begin? Well, there was an existing building on site – and whilst the client deemed this structure uneconomical to refurbish, the planners wouldn’t allow demolition of part of the ground floor…
We love a challenge – so in order to work around these obstacles, we determined that our greatest test would be in building timberframe (designed and manufactured to the millimetre) ON TOP of a randomly built existing ground floor structure. Oh, and our programme only allowed three weeks to complete our works…
So we waited until the contractor had completed all work on the ground floor structure before we could set out and design the timberframe (and we’re very pleased to report that within 5 days of surveying it, we were actually manufacturing it).
which proved to be a complex build
All this was made possible by the fact that our Designer, Engineer and Project Manager were prepared to work day and night over the Bank Holiday to make sure we were production ready on the Tuesday.In doing so, we realised that what usually takes others weeks to achieve, we managed to complete over a long weekend (well we had to do something!).
The location also threw up some extra special logistical challenges too; as it was situated on a busy North East sea front promenade, the weather and the traffic made our work very interesting. Added to that, constructing in a restricted space without the use of a conventional tower crane forced us to be creative, so we utilised a neighbouring property’s car park to build from…
but by incorporating intelligent design
Metal Web Joists
Other unusual technical challenges meant that we had to design and install the stairs once the structure was completed because of the differing floor heights on the ground floor structure which threw up inconsistencies with the levels.
we got the result we all wanted...
This project was an interesting one for us, and has given us a chance to demonstrate what we are really good at; we designed the building to accommodate specialist hoisting facilities for increased loads, we also instigated and designed the specialist care infrastructure using open web technology, allowing the M&E people to run the wiring etc through the floor zone for monitoring and data efficiency. Utilising the floor zone for the electronic and mechanical infrastructure meant that more flexible space was made available for bed positions, so the living space was afforded greater flexibility in layout…
The Client team are so happy with the result that they are now considering Datum for other fast track care projects throughout the North East.