UK’s greenest health centre opens its doors to patients

The UK’s greenest health centre built to meet Passivhaus certification – Foleshill Heath Centre in Coventry – has opened its doors to patients.

The £3.3 million project is a partnership between DHSC-owned Community Health Partnerships (CHP) and NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the new tenants Foleshill Surgery, a GP practice, part of Coventry and Rugby GP Alliance, have now moved in. It has five consulting rooms and two treatment rooms and serves an area of Coventry with high health needs.

Delivery partners included Portakabin (main contractor), Tooley Foster Architects (Passivhaus specialists), AECOM infrastructure consultants, with Arden Estate Partnerships providing project management services.

Construction

The centre is one of the most energy efficient buildings in the NHS estate and was constructed on site in just 25 weeks, significantly quicker than a traditionally constructed building. It was built with Portakabin modules specially designed to international Passivhaus sustainability standards* and is a major milestone for volumetric modular construction. Initial construction information is currently prepared for submission to the Passivhaus Institute in Germany for official certification.

The modules were designed and manufactured by Portakabin at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in York. Using exacting standards of engineering to tolerances of 1mm, the Portakabin team delivered precise control across every aspect of the project from product design to manufacturing, measuring every resource used and any waste generated. The units were then transported to Coventry and reassembled, becoming watertight in just three days. The final fit out, plus adding the insulation and the roof were completed on site. Read the full story on CHP's website here.

Side view of the building.

Left to right: Project lead, Gavin Milner gbp Business Development Director, Nikki Hopkins Arden Estate Partnerships Business Development & Estate Manager, Vicki Ridgway Arden Estate Partnerships Chair, George Marsh