VICTORIA HOSPITAL

The Victoria Hospital Edinburgh is a brand new hospital designed by Keppie Design built on the site of the Western General Hospital. BLE Smoke & Fire Curtains has worked with the local building controller to create the smoke and fire protection in the new hospital. The building, which has cost £43.6m, is the largest commercial building in Scotland and has been specifically designed to meet the needs of elderly, rheumatology, and dermatology patients. There will be 147 beds in six wards each with their own en suite shower-room and toilet.

However, the real challenge for BLE was that all the wards were built in modules, including all the walls, electronic loops and wiring, which were made offsite and then transported in their entirety to the construction site. In addition, the sophisticated operating system had to allow staff to over-ride individual wards so that they could evacuate patients in an emergency. However, BLE were able to create a protected area plus a protected means of escape in every ward, with automatic fire curtains used throughout plus additional static curtains above to close off the ceiling void.