PDSA Petaid Hospital, Sunderland

The PDSA was first established in Sunderland in 1952 and in 2009 began the construction of its new Centre to cope with increased demand.

The new Centre has two additional Consulting Rooms and additional Operating Theatres so that it can cope with a 50% increase in demand. A key driver in this latest design is the sustainability of the building.

The building is heated by air source heat pumps mounted externally at ground level. These units supply heat or cooling through a Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system to the air conditioning units in the building and also to two heat pump boilers in the Plant Room.

The immediate cost benefit of this approach is that PDSA estimates the energy demand per patient at Sunderland is a third of that of one of its other modern Centres which merely complies with the Building Regulations.

This project won the RICS NE Renaissance Award for Sustainability in 2011.