The existing external walling of the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary hospital was in extremely poor condition and required urgent stabilisation. Full use of the hospital had to be maintained during remedial work. The solution was to pin the external leaf into place and permanently protect it from the elements by means of rainscreen cladding. The opportunity was also taken to improve the thermal insulation of the building and carry out full window replacement.
A full size mock-up of the cladding and window arrangement was constructed and tested prior to fabrication commencing. This involved a test rig which used a Shackleton Bomber aero-engine and water sprays to simulate extreme weather conditions, enabling potential weaknesses to be identified and allowing fine-tuning of the rainscreen system design prior to final fabrication.
