The Porthcawl Medical Centre scheme comprises over 2212m² over three storeys and includes more than 20 consulting rooms, 6 treatment room and a pharmacy as well as an undercroft car park, drop off area and ambulance bay. The £6 million, state-of-the-art health centre will provide local GPs and healthcare staff with extra space and modern facilities to meet the needs of up to 15,000 residents. In addition to GP services, the purpose-built centre will be home to several community health services including podiatry, speech and language therapy, maternity, screening clinics, smoking cessation support and local third sector support services.

The acoustic design of the building considered the requirements of Health Technical Memorandum 08-01 and achieving credits for the acoustic design under the BREEAM sustainability assessment method. A pragmatic approach was adopted to balance the acoustic performance requirements with the functional requirements of a medical building with the consequent need to consider practicalities of infection control. Our scope of work included advising on the following:
• The design of the building envelope and ventilation strategy to control external noise break-in.
• Sound insulation between internal spaces.
• The room acoustics within spaces and the provision of finishes to control noise transfer via open plan areas
• External building services plant noise egress
• Noise and vibration from internal building services.