Showing Some Steel In Secure Rehab Facilities

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Crittall is known for its steel window replacements in the heritage sector but the company also provides modern, secure windows in hospitals and other establishments.

Cygnet Hospital Maidstone, for example, is a low level secure and rehabilitation unit comprising four wards for up to 65 male and female patients.

The £13.5 million new-build project was designed by Tangram Architects and completed just before lockdown. Crittall products (or more precisely, Crittall Fendor) specified for the building included CleanVent sliding windows featuring either inward or outward opening cleaning variant dependent on their location within the building.

AlphaLine sliding windows were also supplied, as well as curtain walling, with integrated sliding and top hung windows to non-patient areas. Doors have anti finger trap profiles for safety.

 

 “We worked closely with Crittall Fendor in the design and delivery of the project. They supplied secure windows with an innovative mesh screen detail within the ward environment over three floors of the hospital, the windows being designed for challenging environments.”

– David Whitehead 

Director, Tangram Architects

 

Security windows

CleanVent are high-specification sliding security windows, thermally enhanced with an anti-ligature frame and locking mechanism that can be customised to meet client requirements. AlphaLine windows are more suited to a rehabilitation environment with lower security needs.

The company’s products have been installed in a dozen hospitals around the UK managed by Cygnet Healthcare.

 

More traditional

An expansion project for a special school in London has made good use of thermally broken windows supplied by Crittall Fendor.

Durants School is expanding to meet an increased demand for places for children with autism. As the existing school site had reached capacity it was decided to transform a classroom block at nearby Minchenden School.

Architects BHP specified new double-glazed thermally broken steel windows to replace the original non-thermally broken single-glazed fenestration. The windows in the two-storey building which dates from the early 1950s.

 

Steel doors

A total of 804 top-hung steel windows and 14 fully glazed steel doors have been supplied by Crittall Fendor for the project. Overall U value for the completed project is 1.8 W/m₂K based on a glass centre pane value of 1.0 W/m₂K. The double glazing incorporates toughened low E glass and an 18mm argon filled cavity.

The new windows have been weather tested in laboratory conditions to BS EN 14351 – 1 and site tested successfully by independently accredited test house Wintech. The overall window acoustic value is Rw33dB.

 

Return to school

The school buildings will be welcoming their first students this September. This will allow work to begin improving the original Durants School site. When this work is finished a year later the original site will become known as Durants Lower School and the former Minchenden buildings Durants Upper School. The development on both sites allows the school to create an additional 100 places for young people with autism.

Picture: Durants Upper School and Cygnet Hospital.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
20th May 2020

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