Kalwall Translucent Cladding - Benenden Hospital

Benenden Hospital is a state-of-the-art private hospital in Cranbrook, Kent specialising in a wide range of discretionary healthcare and well-being services to individual and business healthcare members.

• The original hospital opened in 1907 by National Association for the Establishment and Maintenance of Sanatoria - to treat postal workers suffering from tuberculosis. By 1951 the Association had disbanded

and the Benenden Healthcare Society took over the sanatorium, dramatically expanding the services available.

• Architects C A Vaughan Blundell were appointed to design a new atrium and welcoming area to enhance the patient and visitor experience.

• The £55m project attained a Breeam status of ‘Good’.

The Scheme

The scheme, designed by architects C A Vaughan Blundell with assistance from SR Architects Ltd, has created a wonderfully light and airy entrance atrium designed to welcome and create an enhanced patient and visitor experience with maximised natural daylight. The extensive breakout and catering facilities support theatres, en-suite rooms, outpatient department and ophthalmic suite along with diagnostic imaging, rest and recovery areas. The main contractor was Willmott Dixon Construction.

The Advantages

The skylights have a unique ability to bathe interior spaces with diffused and glare-free daylight, which creates a stimulating and healthy environment. In addition, their heavily insulated composition eliminates glare and hotspots, thereby reducing the load on temperature control systems and the need for artificial lighting.

They provide additional light in the large atrium projecting it deep into the interior. They were specified complete with highly insulating Nanogel which achieves an impress U value of 0.28W/m2K, helping the project attain a Breeam status of ‘Good’. This is particularly impressive given the amount of curtain walling and clerestory glazing involved in the scheme.

Kalwall skylights can be manufactured to large spans up to six metres. The aluminium or thermally-broken grid core with interlocking I-beams gives Kalwall incredible strength. The lightweight system reduces the need for supporting structures while offering the highest protection in terms of wind-borne debris and resistance to impact, abrasion and point loads. The exterior face is colour stable and includes a UV resistant, self-cleaning surface. This means that normal  rainfall helps to keep the surface free of dust and dirt while at the same time retaining its original colour during the weathering process. Furthermore, the inclusion of an erosion-prevention barrier protects the interior from weather exposure and the risk of fibre-bloom, cracking and crazing.

The Comments

Geoff Holden, Senior Technician at C A Vaughan Blundell comments, “The use of Kalwall represented the best value balance of energy saving and cost and provided us with the ideal way to achieve spatial daylighting within the requirements of Part L”

Jane Abbott, Hospital Director, “We want to ensure our patients have an excellent, efficient and streamlined experience from the moment they arrive until the time they leave.”