Gulf Construction Online - Diabetes centre gets off the ground

Kuwait

Diabetes centre gets off the ground

Leading Kuwaiti contracting company Mohammed Abdulmohsin Kharafi & Sons is working on some of the more striking projects under way in Kuwait, such as the Sulaibiya wastewater treatment plant. Here, the company details its scope of work on a new hospital dedicated to the research and treatment of diabetes.

01 December 2001

Starting to peek out of the ground on its seafront location on the outskirts of Kuwait City is a new hospital that will be dedicated to the research and treatment of diabetes. It has been commissioned by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS).

The hospital comprises two service basements of 10,000 sq m occupying the full area of the site. Above the basements sits an architecturally impressive curved building enclosing a ground and four upper floors housing the treatment areas, laboratories, in-patients care rooms, management suites and training areas. Each floor is approximately 2,700 sq m. The total built-up area being approximately 37,000 sq m.

The hospital, building and the external works will be constructed by leading contracting company Mohammed Abdulmohsin Kharafi & Sons on a fixed lump-sum price basis for approximately $36 million and will be completed by September 2003. M A Kharafi & Sons won the project through competitive tender. Work commenced in March this year with a project duration of 30 months. The hospital was designed by the local Gulf Consult in association with American Architects NBBJ. Supervision will be by Gulf Consult.

Work was launched with the demolition of an old school building at the site. This building was deemed to be of historical significance, therefore, part of Kharafi's remit was to commission an exact scale model of the existing site from photographic records and measurements.

Demolition was followed by the excavation works of some 100,000 cu m. The perimeter of the site has had to be vertically shored, up to 11 m deep, with careful organisation of the dewatering equipment within the confines of the site.

Next, 21,000 cu m of concrete will be placed in the basements' raft foundations to support the building and to weigh it down against the enormous uplift pressures created by Kuwait's high water table. The basements will be fully tanked to prevent water ingress.

The basements are divided into two areas: car-parking for 229 vehicles over two levels and service rooms. The lower basement houses water tanks, storage areas and mechanical plant while the upper basement accommodates the hospital's standby generator, substation, plant rooms, kitchens and other administrative rooms. Also situated in the upper basement will be the hospital's X-ray, NMR and electron microscope equipment requiring lead linings to the rooms. The basements are roofed over with a mixture of precast concrete pre-stressed double-T beams topped with in-situ concrete and in-situ ribbed and flat slabs. Precast concrete works are being undertaken by local subcontractor Alamiah Building Company.

A further 19,000 cu m of concrete will be placed in the reinforced concrete column, beam and flat slab frame. All concrete is supplied by Kharafi subsidiary - Kuwaiti British Readymix Company. The building is compartmented by the use of blockwork for fire compartments but principally with 18,000 sq m of steel stud and gypsum board partitions. Almost 650 wood, steel, stainless steel and aluminium doors will be installed before the project has been completed.

The roof of the building cleverly houses an athletic running track circuiting a central plant room in one wing and an open plant area in the other, where the hospital's cooling towers are situated. The running track passes through a glass middle atrium area, perhaps inspiring the patient to further laps and better health.

The whole floor (roof) is covered at a uniform level by a metal wing-shaped roofing system supported by structural steel trusses. Over the cooling tower area, the roof is open to allow the dissipation of heat. The leasing edge of the wing roof has fixed sun control louvre blades to allow for ventilation but shade the plant or windows in the respective wings of the upper floor.

A particular aspect of the building will be the specially-designed 'planar' structural curtain-wall on the inner and outer elevations of the building at the mid-point of the curve. The central atrium rising from the ground floor to the roof is located at this mid-point, effectively dividing the building into two wings. Each wing is connected at each floor with an internal bridge. Precast concrete panels enclose the building at the ends with shaped windows suggestive of floating cells.

The external finishes to the hospital comprise etched pattern structural glass and aluminium-framed glass curtain-walling to the outer elevation of the curved building and architectural precast concrete panels to the inner elevation.

Specialist window cleaning equipment will be installed to complement the hygienic internal environment required of a hospital and to keep the glass transparent especially in view of the building's seaside location and the prevalence of dust storms in Kuwait. All the windows are shaded by internal electrically-operated roller blinds.

The external facade also features purpose-made glassfibre reinforced concrete mouldings, by Kharafi subsidiary GFRC specialist Alamiah Building Company, as well as fibre optic lighting.

The internal finishes feature a mixture of natural stone (5,650 sq m) to the walls and floors in public areas. By completion, 37,300 sq m of walls will be painted, 5,550 sq m of epoxy terrazzo will be laid, 3,000 sq m of carpet fixed and 11,500 sq m of gypsum board and acoustic ceiling tiles will be fixed in suspended ceilings.

The works include also more than 2 km of wooden base units and wall units for the hospitals medical room, special stainless steel laboratory casework and furnishing units for the laboratories, together with the associated laboratory air, gas, electrical and drainage systems.

Another unique architectural feature is the hospital's auditorium and staff area. A stone-clad elongated oval, it sits under one end of the building at ground floor level projecting from both sides. Reception areas and out-patient examination and treatment rooms are situated on the rest of the ground gloor.

A mezzanine floor between the ground and first floor levels accommodates the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-condition) plant for the lower floors. The west wing of the first floor is home to 16 in-patient private bedrooms each with an emergency call system and an en-suite bathroom and toilet. Examination and consultants' rooms are located in the east wing. The hospital laboratories are situated above each other on the third and fourth floors along with the senior staff and management suites. The west wing of the fourth floor also has a therapeutic swimming pool with changing and locker rooms. The floors are serviced by five elevators.

The hospital, which is equipped with an automated building management system (BMS), is fully air-conditioned. The air-conditioning system includes 51 air handling units connected by 110 tonnes of ducting. The hospital is protected against fire on all floors by an automatic sprinkler system.

Over 4,800 light fixtures will keep the hospital illuminated, backed up by a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) system and two standby diesel generators. Installation of the electro-mechanical works has been entrusted to subsidiary company - Kharafi National, Kuwait's largest specialist electro-mechanical contractor. Security will be maintained by a close circuit television (CCTV) system. Efficient communication around the hospital departments will be aided by a pneumatic tube system.

Externally, works include the service roads, ornamental lighting and a fountain along with 9,000 sq m hard and soft landscaping areas.

The final result should again reinforce MA Kharafi & Sons' eminence as one of the region's foremost and reputable construction companies, capable of constructing quality buildings and contributing to the well-being of the region in more ways than one.