Design development
CFD (airflow & contaminant)
Ward cross-ventilation, atrium stack effect, and pressure/containment behaviour around isolation zones.
Supported naturally ventilated ward typologies where clinically acceptable.
Total Building Performance mandate
Indoor air quality
Does the air strategy serve infection control as well as comfort?
4/5
Strong on paper and tested at handover; the pandemic then stress-tested it in service.
At Woodlands Hospital
Pressure regimes for isolation rooms, theatres and clean/dirty separation designed into the plan and validated at commissioning.
Openable, garden-facing wards give fresh-air access where clinically appropriate — a comfort and wellbeing gain, but a discipline problem for containment.
Low-VOC material specification as part of the Green Mark scope.
Computational design support used for this mandate
Commissioning → operations
BAS / energy dashboards
Measured plant efficiency, zone conditions and energy use against the design model.
Turns the performance framework from prediction into measurement — the basis of any real POE.
The trade-off
Natural ventilation and containment pull in opposite directions. The project resolves this by typology — fresh-air wards where clinically acceptable, sealed and pressure-controlled zones where it is not — which pushes the risk onto operational discipline and correct commissioning.