Designing and building a new hospital with digitisation

As part of the three-stage Brighton 3Ts programme, our team worked with BDP and WSP to deliver the 13-storey Louisa Martindale Building through 80 technically complex and varied work packages at the live Royal Sussex County Hospital. now includes modern, state-of-the-art facilities that bring elderly care, general medicine, HIV and clinical infection wards up to modern standards, and establish the hospital as the major trauma centre for more than 100,000 patients a year from across Brighton and Sussex.

Ensuring an undisruptive approach

The Royal Sussex County Hospital provides acute care, so its services had to remain unaffected by our work. We ensured this by collaborating with the Trust, providing digital models of our logistic plans to clearly illustrate our strategy for different project phases. In addition, we co-developed a carefully phased programme and implemented decanting plans with the Trust. Our bespoke solutions allowed us to maintain clinical operations as well as move 200 inpatient beds from 19th-century buildings into new accommodations while major works occurred.

Using the digital model for effective client engagement

The phased replacement of this live hospital meant there were close interfaces with existing facilities. To clearly illustrate the strategy to the Trust and notify them about potential implications, we generated stills from a 4D digital model based on the scheme’s proposed programme. Additional images highlighting access issues for each phase were also developed. We combined these images with a presentation that illustrated the sequence and its consequences to provide the Trust with an accurate description of the logistics strategy. Simon Maurice, Divisional Director of Operations said "Staff from every department moving into the building have had a hand in designing their areas. We have used… virtual reality to help them understand how their new departments will work and to plan how they will care for patients in them.”

Managing complex stakeholder interfaces

The site was 1 metre away from residential properties; making stakeholder engagement crucial. The project phases aligned traffic, delivery, and site operatives, and the construction plan was revised to avoid clashes. We communicated with the NHS Comms Team to keep residents informed and produced a newsletter about our progress.

Standardisation and modern methods of construction

Crown House Technologies delivered and commissioned a £130m MEP package which included 54 riser modules and 113 bathroom pods made at our offsite factory. We also rationalised the number of door types by working with the Trust to identify unnecessary design variations. This enabled us to improve standardisation and reduce the number of door types by 94%, from 357 to 21.