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The Simmering Residential Care Facility - World of PORR
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PORR Projects World of PORR 160/2012 Stefan Posch On a park-like site at Dittmanngasse 3A-5, near Enkplatz, in the 11th district of Vienna, the Simmering Residential Care Facility was developed by “Senuin Beteiligungsverwaltung GmbH”, a subsidiary of Strauss & Partner Development GmbH. Upon its completion, it was let to the Vienna Hospitals Association (KAV) which now runs the facility. View of the facility from Dittmanngasse Image: PORR The oblong main body of the residential care facility was constructed by PORR in its capacity of general contractor (consortium of the two Vienna-based departments building construction 1 and large-scale projects 2) within a 25-month construction period. The building has two basement levels, the ground floor and three upper floors (four in one wing). On the north side, cantilevering of the top floor has saved a mature stand of trees and provides shade for newly laid out paths and gardens. Top Floor Cantilever Image: PORR The twelve nursing wards and two dementia wards on the upper floors can be accessed via six lifts and five staircases. In all, the building houses 280 patient rooms with 348 beds. The design provided for a division of the building complex into two main sections, each comprising two wards per floor. Central supply zones permit and facilitate communication and optimum operational management between pairs of adjacent wards. Resident interaction on the wards is encouraged by themed spaces, communal loggias, dayroom areas and aquariums. The individual rooms have glass partitions on the corridor side, which enable residents to “be part of life” on the wards. The bathrooms are all situated along the outer walls of the building to admit daylight and ensure natural ventilation. The administrative department with the cloakrooms, examining rooms and treatment rooms, the multi-purpose hall, the meditation room, the prayer room as well as a café and the staff restaurant are situated on the ground floor. The two basement floors house a day-care centre on space rented by the “Vienna Social Fund”, the underground The Simmering Residential Care Facility A home for 348 residents with special nursing care needs Page 1
Transcript of The Simmering Residential Care Facility - World of PORR
PORR ProjectsWorld of PORR 160/2012
Stefan Posch
On a park-like site at Dittmanngasse 3A-5, near Enkplatz, inthe 11th district of Vienna, the Simmering Residential CareFacility was developed by “Senuin BeteiligungsverwaltungGmbH”, a subsidiary of Strauss & Partner DevelopmentGmbH. Upon its completion, it was let to the Vienna HospitalsAssociation (KAV) which now runs the facility.
View of the facility from DittmanngasseImage: PORR
The oblong main body of the residential care facility wasconstructed by PORR in its capacity of general contractor(consortium of the two Vienna-based departments buildingconstruction 1 and large-scale projects 2) within a 25-monthconstruction period. The building has two basement levels,the ground floor and three upper floors (four in one wing). Onthe north side, cantilevering of the top floor has saved amature stand of trees and provides shade for newly laid outpaths and gardens.
Top Floor CantileverImage: PORR
The twelve nursing wards and two dementia wards on theupper floors can be accessed via six lifts and five staircases.In all, the building houses 280 patient rooms with 348 beds.
The design provided for a division of the building complex intotwo main sections, each comprising two wards per floor.Central supply zones permit and facilitate communication andoptimum operational management between pairs of adjacentwards.
Resident interaction on the wards is encouraged by themedspaces, communal loggias, dayroom areas and aquariums.The individual rooms have glass partitions on the corridorside, which enable residents to “be part of life” on the wards.The bathrooms are all situated along the outer walls of thebuilding to admit daylight and ensure natural ventilation. The administrative department with the cloakrooms,examining rooms and treatment rooms, the multi-purpose hall,the meditation room, the prayer room as well as a café andthe staff restaurant are situated on the ground floor. The twobasement floors house a day-care centre on space rented bythe “Vienna Social Fund”, the underground
The Simmering Residential Care FacilityA home for 348 residents with special nursing care needs
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car park, the “cook & chill” kitchen as well as all the controlrooms. A loading ramp has been installed for deliveries andtransport purposes.
DeliveryImage: PORR
Two property developers, one above the otherEight months after the start of construction work on theresidential care facility, the PORR consortium which wasalready active on the site received a second generalcontractor assignment from the “Neue Heimat GemeinnützigeWohnungs- u SiedlungsgesmbH” for the construction of 56flats on top of the Simmering residential care facility. Thissecond commission meant that two different propertydevelopers were having two actually separate constructionprojects implemented – one above the other. The idea was tokeep points of contact or intersection to a minimum, in orderto prevent future conflict. Nevertheless, the architect and thebuilding services engineer were the same for bothcommissions.
Foundation of 750 CFA pilesThe building is supported by approximately 750 cast-in-siturotary bored piles with an average length of 12 m. Complexpile structures with diverse ground-plan shapes anddiameters were produced to transfer the load to the baseplate. Once the base plate was in place, the four rotary towercranes could be used to capacity. Because of the slim designwith massive reinforced concrete cores, which are essential inensuring seismic safety, 85% of the building shell could bebuilt with in-situ concrete. The only exception were theprecast shafts in the patient bathrooms. All the ascendingventilation, water mains and wastewater pipes for the patientrooms as well as the substructures for WCs and washstandsin the bathrooms were housed in these units. Precast loggiaswith built-in modular baskets as well as precast staircaseswere simply slotted in on site. In the course of the structuralwork 39,000 m³ of excavated earth were removed, 3,500tonnes of steel were installed and 24,000 m³ of concreteplaced. Structural work was completed 13 months after thecontract had been awarded.
Meandered clay-tile façadeThe external eye-catcher of the entire construction project isthe clay-tile curtain wall, which is interveined with 30-cm-thickfull thermal insulation meanders. This combination called for
detailed façade planning by the contractors concerned, as itwas necessary to define axis spacing which also madeallowance for the installation of the windows. After imprintingof the façade pattern on the outer reinforced concrete walls,work was started on the substructure and the thermalinsulation meanders. After that the rock wool insulation andthe carrier rail for the suspended tiles were mounted. In orderto achieve the finished visual effect on the façade, 28 tileformats, cut to hundreds of sizes, had to be precisely placed;the façade had to be cleaned and parapet plates and terminalpanels mounted. Eventually the picture shown on the 3Ddesign sketch was realised in practice.
FaçadeImage: PORR
FaçadeImage: PORR
The meditation roomThe architect’s design was for a room with inclined walls,angled in places. The main technical challenge, however,was the fabrication of insulated wall elements with the qualityof fairfaced concrete on both exterior and interior. Afterseveral months of detailed planning together with a wholerange of specialised companies, a solution was developedwhich is now in place – full-depth precast elements whichform the outer shell, supported by custom-made scaffolding.The insulation of extruded polystyrene with attachedreinforcement was affixed to it on the interior side. Once theinterior fairfaced concrete formwork was ready, the interspacecould finally be concreted. The meditation room is topped bya ceiling with an inclined skylight dome, and the space isrounded off by customised glazing elements in the skylightdome, angled windows and LED lighting designed
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by a lighting artist, as well as a wall of fitted cupboards and asolid parquet floor.
Meditation room outsideImage: see below
Meditation room insideImage: see below
Tests and trialsIn order to meet the requirements of the client and of KAV, theuser, a number of tests and trials had to be performed whilethe building was still under construction. In the laboratory ofMunicipal Department 39, the glass partitions between patientrooms and corridors were subjected to a test, including theuse of a sprinkler, for a fire resistance of 30 minutes. Findinga solution for this architectural detail was renderedparticularly difficult by the requirement that, for opticalreasons, the VSG glass partitions be fixed with adhesive onlyand mounted flush with the wall.
A detail of major importance for both patients and nursingstaff was that the loggia doors were to have the lowestpossible thresholds in order to permit trip- and rumble-freecrossing with walkers, rollators or beds.
Patient room with loggiaImage: see below
To meet this requirement, a special mock-up for a ‘bed rollingtrial’ was developed together with the user KAV, in order toobtain the all-clear for the production of the thresholds.
Once the mock-up room was ready, airborne noise andfootfall sound readings were performed. The speciallyselected plasterboard wall construction with more solid panelshad to meet the noise protection requirements.
Drain installation in the shower areas of the patientbathrooms was a high-precision job. Puddling caused byimprecise tiling or too little gradient was unacceptable, as itwould have meant a high risk of dust and dirt build-up and ofbacterial growth.
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Patient bathroomImage: see below
An air-leak test was also performed, since draughts in thepatient rooms were considered harmful to the patients andtherefore had to be prevented through precise adjustment ofthe ventilation.
500 lux mean illuminance was required in the patients' bedareas to permit medical examination. A combination ofdifferent light fixtures as well as calculations andmeasurements confirmed that this requirement was met.
Before the finishing work was completed, numerous testswere performed with wheelchairs, patient beds and othermeans of person transport. The objective was to guaranteethe unimpeded and unobstructed use of the entire building inevery possible way.
Life on a nursing wardEach ward is surrounded by twenty rooms (single and doublerooms). The bed space of each individual resident is fitted outwith a so-called “suspended headboard” equipped withdiverse light fixtures, power outlets and data sockets, and anoxygen connector. A bench seat in a niche, a fitted wardrobewith a TV set and a table and chair are designed to create afeeling of homeliness. Moreover, each room gives on to aloggia roomy enough to accommodate the bed. Solarprotection is provided by external blinds fitted to the façadearea. The bathrooms are spacious and adapted to the needsof the disabled, each having a window, shower, WC andwashstand as well as the required handholds. Lounge areas for smokers and non-smokers, communalloggias and theme spaces and aquariums are designed tofacilitate interaction and create a sense of togetherness onthe wards.
Patient room with glazed corridor partitionImage: see below
Ward lounge area with nurses’ stationImage: see below
Challanges posed by hygiene requirementsThe hygiene regulation specified in the contract (Austrianstandard ÖNORM H6020) was an ever-present challengethroughout the construction period. Every single productinstalled was not only subject to visual and technical samplinginspections but had to be approved by the hygiene officers of
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the Vienna Hospitals Association. Samples were treated withvarious cleaning agents and strained to test their resistance.Corners and surfaces have to be easy to clean. Moreover,the hygiene officers ruled that in sanitary installations, theplughole must never be directly hit by a water jet, sincefloating germs would expose residents to unacceptable risks.
In order to obtain the required approvals or in preparation fortrials, products and samples had to be provided in good timeso that alternatives could be submitted if necessary.
These highly demanding tasks were successfully concludedin October 2011 with the "official sanitary inspection" underthe supervision and guidance of Municipal Department 40.The inspection of the residential care facility by hygienists,occupational physicians and the health and safetyinspectorate as well as by many other representatives ofpublic authorities confirmed that the Simmering ResidentialCare Facility met all the requirements for unrestricted use.
Ward lounge areaImage: see below
Two-storey themed spaceImage: see below
Management and suppliesThe ground floor and the two basement floors are theadministrative and service zones.
The porter’s desk with the building services control panelsoccupies the core area at the main entrance.
Porter’s deskImage: see below
The café and the staff restaurant are situated behind it.
Staff restaurantImage: see below
Right next to the main entrance is the entrance to theexamination and treatment area, where residents receivemedical care and treatment.
Registration-cum-waiting area & examination & treatment roomsImage: see below
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ErgotherapyImage: see below
A hairdresser and a florist moved into the two businesspremises. The multi-purpose hall with mobile partition walls,the meditation room and the prayer room round off theresidents' area on the ground floor. Building sections C and Dhouse the entire administration, the technical support, thenight-duty rooms and the main cloakroom for the nursing andcleaning staff. The farewell room and the mortuaryrefrigeration unit occupy an area set apart from day-to-dayactivities.
The west-facing part of the first basement level houses theunderground car park with 60 parking spaces, the centralventilation and electricity generating plant as well as storagerooms for beds and equipment. Owing to the sloping terrain,with an elevation drop of 4 m on the eastern side, thebasement floor rises from the ground to its full height on thisside and the resulting ground level is used by the ViennaSocial -Fund as a day care centre for care recipients.
The second basement level accommodates a 70-m collectorwith supply mains as well as the central ventilation plant, thecentral cooling plant, the liquid refuse disposal system, theremote heating plant room and the sprinkler station with thesprinkler tank.
Building services technologyUtmost care had to be taken to keep ventilation ducts anddomestic water pipes free of dirt and dust during installation.To prevent future nucleation, the ventilation ducts had to besealed with foil and there was a ban on dead-end conduits inthe domestic water pipe system. Once the water pipes hadbeen filled, all the fittings had to be regularly flushed. Beforecompletion, measurements were made and samples taken toconfirm sterility.
The air-conditioning systems in the examination andtreatment areas and in the patient rooms were installed incompliance with Austrian standard ÖNORM H 6020 [air-conditioning systems in hospital facilities]. The ventilationsystem was inspected by a hygienist who confirmed that itconformed to standards. Two of the five staircases are
equipped with pressure ventilation systems. The fire brigadelifts situated directly in the staircase area are also pressure-ventilated to ensure that bedridden persons can be safelyevacuated in case of fire.
With the exception of the apartments, the entire building isequipped with a “fully protected” fire detection system withalarm transmission to the Vienna city fire brigade. Theinstallation of a sprinkler system throughout the entireresidential care facility was part of the fire protection plan andinvolved the mounting of approximately 2,800 sprinkler heads.
The electrical engineering jobs in the medical treatmentrooms, and to a lesser extent in the patient rooms, wereperformed in accordance with ÖVE/ÖNORM E 8007[electrical installations in hospitals and locations for medicaluse outside hospitals], application group 1. Among otherthings the standard provides for equipotential bonding ofradiators and door frames. The laying of conductive rubberfloor covering is another precondition for meeting thestandard, and this was consequently installed in all theexamination rooms.
A major challenge was posed by the task of putting in place acontrol and adjustment system for the entire complex via thebuilding control system which is in part linked up to theemergency generator on the roof. The installed bus systemwhich controls the external blinds and the lighting system hadto be programmed in compliance with the requirements.
To comply with the rule that during normal operations thewards can only be accessed by lift, the staircase doors werefitted with access control systems and card readers. Inaddition, disorientation systems were installed on the twodementia wards. Dementia patients are equipped withbracelets that emit sensor-controlled signals to the nurses’station, thus preventing patients from “slipping out” unnoticed.
As planned, the first residents moved into the SimmeringResidential Care Facility in February 2012.
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Project data
Project Simmering Residential CareFacility
Project ownerresidential care facility
Seniun BeteiligungsverwaltungGmbH
Project ownerapartments
Neue Heimat GemeinnützigeWohnungs- undSiedlungsgesellschaft Ges.m.b.H
Architect Josef Weichenberger architects +Partner
Project management,coordination andstructural engineering
FCP – Fritsch, Chiari & PartnerZT GmbH
Landscaping 3:0 Landschaftsarchitektur
Contractor PORR Group, project partners:departments building construction1 + major projects 2
Contract type General contractor order
Gross floor space 38,215 m²
Start of constructionworks
1st September 2009
Project completion 7th November 2011
Handover ofapartments to tenants
8th December 2011
Opening of Simmeringresidential care facility
February 2012
Dimensions approx. 201 m x 19 m x 24 m
The Simmering Residential Care Facility was handed over toour client Senuin Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH (asubsidiary of Strauss & Partner) on 7th November 2011, andsubsequently started operations as part of the hospital andnursing care network of the Vienna Hospitals Association(KAV).
As planned, the first residents moved into the SimmeringResidential Care Facility in February 2012.
Images: Paul Ott, Josef Weichenberger architects + Partner
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