Camouflaging the ever-present security features was a constant at the 16-hectare mental health campus, built on time and below budget primarily to treat an incarcerated population but also to serve the community.

A safe, secure and healing environment—nestled into a coastal forest—was paramount in the design of the 170-bed facility, which offers a gentle approach to mental health care. Some 2,000 local plant species are surrounded by a secure perimeter fence or equivalent building or boundary structure.

During preconstruction, a number of value engineering options were realized. One allowed for ground improvement works, which reduced the original designed volume of cut-and- fill materials to be brought into and off the site. This greatly reduced the volume of construction traffic through the restricted village access, says OHLA-Rhattigan JV.

Some 50,000 cu m of bulk excavation was treated and reused on site. This was a key contributor to secure the schedule and increased the BREEAM green-building certification, says the contractor.

Offsite construction allowed a switch to high-security precast concrete for the structure and partitions, reducing CO_² emissions and waste on site while honing the abilities of local precasters.