Fendor, working with the consultants and main contractor, has developed a window system that it claims “offers a revolution in terms of both performance and the living environment” for a new secure unit at Nottinghamshire’s Rampton high secure hospital
The new High Security Learning Disability Unit has been built by Laing O’Rourke, with Gilling Dod Architects leading the design team. Fendor has supplied double glazed curtain walling for communal areas, and double glazed windows to patient rooms and other vulnerable locations, offering attributes including full anti-ligature protection and patient control over ventilation, plus high levels of natural light and attack resistance. Project architect Mark Cowpland said: “In recent years Rampton Hospital has used polycarbonate glazed windows, but these lacked thermal properties and resulted in condensation issues. With the Learning Disability Unit we were re-introducing glass for the first time in over 30 years. “We were given the client brief that there was to be natural ventilation, operated by the service user, and as much daylight as possible, while the glazing also had to meet Part L2 of the Building Regulations. Laing O’Rourke brought Fendor on board early, and it helped us work up a design, supplying numerous window sections and samples for testing. The windows meet all of our aspirations on safety, security, energy, natural light, and ventilation.” The Therapeutic Core building features 27 areas of AlphaLine aluminium curtain walling fitted with Fendor’s SwingVent opening windows on actuators. Fendor also supplied steel glazed doors and 26 steel SwingVent windows incorporating antiescape top-hung vents. Houses A, B, C, and D feature 22 fully anti-ligature and anti-pass high security composite steel and aluminium framed SwingVent bedroom windows, a tripleglazed “special” with a laminated glass centre pane protected by a “sacrificial” polycarbonate inner layer. The opening vents are patient-operated by an internal anti-ligature control knob on a continuous turn mechanism to prevent potential damage to the operating gear. Fendor also supplied nine steel entrances for each building, incorporating doors and anti escape top-hung SwingVents.
