Alltwen Community Hospital, Porthmadog
A Community Hospital set in North Wales, Ysbyty Alltwen provides a a 30 bed ward, Outpatients Department and a Day Hospital, as well as Minor Injuries and Radiology Unit and a large base for the Hospital’s Community Mental Health Team.
The hospital incorporates a number of environmentally friendly initiatives and was designed around an internal winter garden space integral to the proposed natural ventilation and heating strategies. Key sustainable design principles include:
- Large areas of glazing to patient areas reinforce the link with the landscape and provide maximum daylight and good natural views to aid recovery.
- The ventilation system is mixed mode, and uses natural ventilation where possible backed up by mechanical extract to clinical areas.
- The building uses a biomass boiler for heating & hot water (first hospital in Wales to do so), and the in-patient areas are served by underfloor heating.
- The main frame of the building is concrete which is appropriate to the challenging ground conditions, and provides thermal mass to temper the heating requirements particularly in patient areas. The large areas of South facing glazing provide opportunity for solar gains reducing the heating load, while the light wells & winter garden create a stack effect to assist the natural ventilation.
- The heating & ventilation is controlled by a fully inclusive building management system which monitors and maintains an appropriate environment to all areas.
- The site uses a rainwater attenuation system with a surface water lagoon. The green roof retains most of the rainfall on the building.
The building was designed to embrace the existing site and responds positively to the topography, geology and ecology to provide a high quality therapeutic environment for patients and staff.
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