Premier Modular was founded in 1956 and is now one of the UK's leading offsite and modular building specialists, creating sustainable spaces for people to live, learn, work and take care of others. At the beginning of 2022, it was announced that the company had secured its largest ever healthcare project.

London's King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust awarded a £21 million contract to Premier Modular to build a new 3,450 square-metre four-storey outpatients' facility at the site in south-east London, which is now almost complete after less than a year on site.

The building will reduce pressure on the main hospital, freeing space, reducing waiting times and improving the efficiency of this major trauma centre. There will be 48 consultation rooms and eight procedure rooms. The facility will provide services including neurosciences, rheumatology, respiratory, pain management, dermatology and urology, while other therapies and surgery will also be available. This is a large-scale development that will substantially improve the patient experience.

Delivering at pace

This is a project that's been delivered at the kind of speed only modular construction can achieve. In February, just a month after the announcement, 133 steel-framed modules were installed onsite. Each one weighs up to 11.5 tonnes, and a 500-tonne crane was involved in an exercise that demanded complex logistical planning to carry out the work with minimal disruption to the hospital's operations.

As Dan Allison, Premier Modular's divisional director, explained: “The use of an offsite solution for this project will ensure faster delivery and earlier occupation, to the benefit of patient care.

“Offsite construction is safer, quieter and cleaner than in-situ construction, which will radically reduce disruption during the build phase to staff and patients, and the surrounding residential community. This type of building solution is also enormously beneficial on restricted hospital sites, such as this, reducing the amount of plant, materials and vehicle movements to site by undertaking as much work in the factory as we can.”

Premier Modular won the contract after completing the £10 million offsite construction of a 62-bed priority assessment unit at St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey. The King's Cross project confirms the company's status in the front rank of innovation and modular construction.

Build Space is a long-term partner of Premier Modular, having supplied the company with specialists in a variety of construction disciplines over the years. The King's Cross Hospital outpatients' building is the largest undertaking of the partnership to date, and Premier Modular relied on Build Space to provide several site managers to oversee this complex and ground-breaking project. The swift, smooth progress of the scheme bodes well for future collaboration between the two companies.