Birmingham builds legacy with help from Kingspan

Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s ‘Waterfall House’ now features a new clinical building, which is home to a state-of-the-art cancer and rare disease centre – it contains 20,000 l/m of Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation.

The Kingspan product was specified for the building’s services to help achieve credits towards the BREEAM target rating of ‘Very Good’.

The four floors of Waterfall House are tailored to meet the needs of young patients receiving care from its pioneering rare diseases centre.

This includes a collection of private rooms, spaces for staff and patients to relax or socialise, family rooms, and access to fresh air.

As part of the Next Generation Project, the new building aims to offer world-class healthcare facilities that will serve for the lifetime of the hospital.

It was designed by architects, BDP, and engineering consultants, Hoare Lea. The project was also overseen by M&E contractors, Interserve Engineering Services.

The plan was developed to be forward thinking, as the facility needs to be adaptable and flexible in nature to meet the requirements of the future.

The premium performance insulation core of Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation has a thermal conductivity as low as 0.025 W/m.K and can offer a long term energy saving solution.

In addition, it achieves a 2008 Green Guide Summary Rating of A/A+, meaning the pipe insulation can help towards achieving credits for the hospital’s lifecycle and energy targets as part of its BREEAM assessment.

Stephen Lunn, Senior Project Manager for Interserve Engineering Services, discussed the use of BIM: “The build programme was designed with BIM (level 2) to help deliver the thermal performance whilst avoiding clashes in the building services.

“With Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation being available as a free BIM object, it assisted with this process. BIM is a significant tool for delivering best value for our clients.”

Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation has also been awarded a best-in-class Eurofins Indoor Air Comfort Gold certificate, recognising it as outstanding material according to the VOC Indoor Air Quality emissions standards.

As well as this, it is the first pipe insulation product to attain BDA Agrement® certification under the scheme.

It also has a best in class European Reaction to Fire performance of BL,s1,d0, and is FM Approved per Approval Standard 4924, when installed in accordance with the conditions defined by the approval.