The new Clydebank Health and Care Centre was designed to change how care is delivered to the local community, combating the area’s history of ill health. Thorn and its sister brand Zumtobel, both lighting brands of the Zumtobel Group, worked with Wallace Whittle, environmental building services consultancy, to design a lighting scheme to achieve the desired aspirations.
Clydebank Health and Care Centre is a new primary care facility for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and West Dunbartonshire Council HSCP. The new facility makes a change in the way care is being delivered in the local community, with the 47,000 residents of Clydebank able to access a full range of services under one roof.
The building was delivered by BAM Construction through Hub West Scotland and is the centrepiece of the Queens Quay masterplan on the former John Brown Shipyards.
Decades in the making, the masterplan shifts the town centre of Clydebank down to the water, reconnecting Clydebank with the Clyde, with Queens Quay and Titan Crane on the doorstep.
The £21.7m state-of-the-art building signifies a change in the aspirations for Clydebank. Placing a primary care health facility at the heart of the new urban centre marks a transition from its history of ill health to a focus on wellbeing.
It offers a centralised primary care model, with six GP surgeries, physiotherapy, community clinics, care at home, mental and sexual health services and more, so patients and service users can receive more integrated, accessible and efficient care.
The health centre is arranged around a central atrium space with two open air courtyards and is designed to facilitate interaction between the building users. This encourages collaboration and cooperation between primary care providers. Staff can navigate the building independently of patient zones and are brought together in a spectacular communal central space with 360° views over the basin to Titan Crane.
Fit for the future delivery of integrated health and care services
Wanting to replicate the bright, airy, and modern lighting design implemented in the neighbouring Greenock Health Centre, Wallace Whittle once again turned to the Zumtobel Group lighting brands Zumtobel and Thorn for a complete lighting and controls package for the new integrated health and care facility.
Ewan Arthur, Key Account Manager – Specification at Zumtobel Group, comments, “The atrium is the star of the lighting scheme. Unlike the Greenock Health Centre, where we had the striking ONDARIA luminaires, the architect looked to provide a different aesthetic and wanted square fittings to complement the space. To address this, we designed a square SLOTLIGHT infinity arrangement to provide adequate illumination and ensure it was easy to clean with minimal maintenance. In keeping with the design signature, we also installed SLOTLIGHT infinity in the circulation areas and corridors. Providing an energy efficient scheme that will be easy to maintain for the end user.”
Clarity, comfort and cleaning
The total scheme draws on the advantages of using the latest LED technology, slim low surface area, low energy requirements, easy to control and maintain.
When we look to the functional lighting, to ensure clinicians have the right light to perform diagnostic work in the consultation and treatment rooms, the Thorn IQ Wave provides a clear and low glare (UGR<19) light with excellent colour rendering (CRI >80). This is crucial in treatment rooms where glare can have a critical impact. The MV optic provides a recessed direct / indirect solution. Its IP44 rating allows for easy wiping down of the luminaire to aid infection control throughout the space.
As with all buildings, a reliable emergency lighting system is imperative to ensure that people can safely get out in the event of a power failure. Nowhere is this more vitally important than in a healthcare environment. Thorn’s Voyager Star helps the building meet the latest European standard EN 1838, providing the correct light levels for escape routes and refuge points.
It isn’t just the patient facing areas that benefit from the latest LEDs. The plant rooms have been installed with Thorn’s Aquaforce Pro IP66 moisture and dust-resistant luminaires which offer efficiency as high as 141lm/W – the potential savings are significant.
Often overlooked, lighting controls were crucial for this project. With healthcare services available at different times and in different areas throughout the week, a flexible lighting control system offers numerous advantages in terms of efficiency, cost and environmental impact. Here, Zumtobel’s LITENET lighting controls are implemented, so light is only used when required, maximising the natural benefits of daylight, and reducing the associated carbon emissions.
Martin Lorimer, Associate, Wallace Whittle commented, “It was important to Wallace Whittle when completing the designs for both health and care centres (Clydebank and Greenock) that we established and maintained a high quality, efficient lighting and lighting control design to ensure the client aspirations, and our own, became a reality in a highly robust and efficient installation. The support of Zumtobel to the contractor team of BAM Construction, Arctech Scotland and the design team matched that – the support from Zumtobel from concept to completion was fantastic.”
The project was shortlisted for a 2022 Scottish Design Award and AJ Architecture Awards.
For further information on the featured products please visit www.thornlighting.co.uk or https://z.lighting/en/zumtobel/
Images © Niall Hastie Photography
