Ninety-four Fieger louvre windows installed at the Banbridge Health and Care Centre allow natural light and ventilation to permeate the building and provide visual connection with landscaped courtyards and gardens.
The building has been recognised by RIBA with national and regional awards for its innovative design that engages with the surrounding landscape.
Architects Kennedy FitzGerald in association with Avanti Architects faced a challenging brief which required the new centre to provide facilities for community outpatients clinics, daycare accommodation for adults with disabilities and administrative offices for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, all under one roof.
The new centre is constructed on the site of the old Banbridge Hospital and Workhouse. Enabling works were required to clear the site of existing buildings and contamination.
Significant level changes across the site were viewed as an exciting opportunity to realise the brief by stepping the accommodation.
Giving good levels of natural light, the Fieger louvre windows ensure high visibility, creating a strong connection between interior and exterior. Though allowing ventilation, the windows also promote energy conservation.
Being double glazed units achieve a U value of 2.1 to 2.3 W/m²K and have a certified air infiltration rate of 0.4 m³/hour/m², so that heat is conserved during winter months.
The ventilated louvres use Cool-Lite SKN165 glazing from Saint-Gobain, delivering a 65 per cent reduction in solar heat gain. Electrical actuation of the louvres, by compact D&H linear motors, built unobtrusively into the side frames, is operated under the control of the building management system for automated comfort setting.
Motors have anti-trap protection to reverse movement if resistance is sensed on closure. The aluminium framed louvre units are incorporated within the curtain wall structure and have a matching finish.
Upper and lower levels of the building each have a central landscaped courtyard.
Community treatment facilities and Trust offices are located on the upper tier, closer to the town, with adult daycare on the lower, more secluded, tier. High quality landscapingthroughout enhances the site with the higher level overlooking a green roof to the lower tier.
The complex serves the needs of the town of Banbridge and the wider community of 48,000 people in County Down.