Formed in 2000, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust merged the Leicester General Hospital, Glenfield Hospital and Leicester Royal Infirmary. It is one of the busiest and largest teaching trusts in England, treating over one million people a year at their three sites.

In a bid to consolidate all paediatric services to a single site, the client required a new, state-of-the-art dedicated Children’s Hospital at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. This was a part of a major investment by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, including a major refurbishment of existing facilities. 

Utilising modern methods of construction to create a striking and playful design concept, the project involved designing a striking entranceway to the Kensington Building based on stacked alphabet building blocks.

This stacked cube feature posed a number of challenges for our engineering team, who were appointed to undertake the detailed structural design associated with RIBA work stage 05. Cantilever steelwork for the first level created difficulty because of the amount of steelwork required to support the vertical bracing and steelwork above, and the width of the foundations meant that masonry was required to be supported onto footing, which required thickening.

It was important to the project that the works were carried out quickly and with minimal disruption, given that the Kensington Building is a live clinical building which is operational 24/7. This was part of the reason that an MMC solution was chosen for the extension, along with the future-proofing abilities.

Future plans for the building include adding an additional storey, which has already been integrated into future phasing designs. 

The new space comprises a new cardiac ward, outpatient and diagnostic department, cardiac paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), cardiac theatre, catheter lab, as well as parents’ accommodation, allowing families to receive the best possible care in the region.