A hospital in record time

Challenge

COVID-19 has challenged healthcare systems worldwide. In many countries, authorities have been forced to set up emergency hospitals to expand capacity. Conference centres, exhibition buildings, and other facilities have been used to meet the overwhelming need for bed space.1,2,3 During the third wave of the pandemic, Hong Kong saw a sharp increase in the number of people infected.4 By the end of July 2020, the highest number at the time of daily new cases of COVID-19 was registered.5 There was an urgent need to expand the capacity of the health system to offer more bed space but also specialised units where very ill patients could be treated without exposing health personnel to the risk of infection.

Solution

North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre (NLTH HKICC) is an 800-bedhospital with specialised facilities, including negative-pressure operating rooms and insulated wards. The 44,000 sqm building was built in just four months and in accordance with building regulations for permanent hospitals. This was possible because the construction was carried

Taxonomy

Sphere: Treatment

Timescale: Long Term out as an MiC project. MiC stands for ”Modula Integrated Construction”, and this construction method has been prioritised in Hong Kong in recent years, where the authorities have used it for public housing, among other things. The system consists of prefabricated, self-supporting modules – typically room-sized – that are assembled off-site. In this way, a large part of the work is moved away from the construction site and into factories, where workflows can be streamlined and material use optimised. The result is faster and cheaper construction, fewer inconveniences, and, according to the responsible authorities, higher quality compared to traditional methods. The project is the largest of its kind and is considered proof of concept for MiC within this type of construction.

The example shows that system innovation has an important potential when time is crucial. The self-supporting modules can also be moved and reused in new buildings. In the context of a big city like Hong Kong where land prices shorten the lifespan of buildings, this can increase the sustainability of construction projects, which typically have a limited time horizon on a given plot.

Type: Building Intervention User Group: Employees/Service Providers, Customers/Users

Project and location: Ublo window, Republic of Korea

Contributor: Ublo.com