Teenage Cancer Trust, Cardiff
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ORMS cancer treatment unit in Cardiff
James Brittain Download Original
The cancer unit provides accommodation for eight adolescent cancer inpatients, with additional treatment and day care services and includes a large social zone with a private rooftop terrace
The ward is elevated two storeys above ground on stilts for operational reasons. It also represents the Teenage Cancer Trust's aspirations to bridge the gap between adult and paediatric oncology and to be a world leader in the quality of its wards.
The free-standing unit is propped 6.5m above the ground on 16 individual raking steel columns, which form four W-shaped frames and hit the ground at locations defined by the service chamber at basement level, a fire escape route that runs across the site, and existing drainage runs.
The building's blue metal mesh cladding gives the building a bold external presence despite only having a footprint of 15 x 19m. The mesh runs from belly to balcony, punctuated at first-floor level by a long, horizontal window; a protective clasp encasing the two-storey unit.
Data
- Begun: Apr 2007
- Completed: 2009
- Floor area: 585m2
- Sector: Healthcare
- Total cost: £2.4M
- Tender date: Mar 2006
- Procurement: JCT 98 WCD
- Address: University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XW, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: ORMS
- Project architect: John McRae
- Client: Teenage Cancer Trust/ Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust
- Development advisor: Derwent London
- Structural engineer: Price and Myers
- Services consultant: AECOM
- Main contractor: Cowlin Construction
- Contractor's architect: Stride Treglown Davies
- Project manager: Jackson Coles
- Quantity surveyor: Jackson Coles
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