Polar NE has completed a major specialist glazing project at Highgate East, a new £70m purpose-built NHS mental health inpatient facility at Whittington Hospital in London.
The project, delivered for Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, was completed in September 2024 and brought together Ryder Architecture as architect and BAM Construction as main contractor.
Polar NE was appointed to deliver a complex glazing package for the mental healthcare scheme, including 160 healthcare windows, Hamble Secure doors, curtain walling, rooflights and automatic doors.
Located in the heart of London, the site presented significant logistical challenges.
Managing Director James Hill, said: “With restricted access and limited space, the installation of such a large number of specialist windows required a different approach.
“The project team took the decision to install the windows off-site, more than 150 miles away in Stoke, where they were fitted into precast concrete units before being transported to site.”
This approach helped simplify the installation process once the units arrived in London, while also delivering health and safety benefits by allowing the windows to be installed at ground level rather than in a congested live construction environment.
While a large proportion of the window installation was carried out off-site, other key elements of the glazing package, including the large curtain wall screens, were completed on the Highgate East site.
The project took 17 months to complete and was delivered on time in September 2024.
For Polar NE, Highgate East represents one of its most significant mental healthcare projects to date, demonstrating the company’s ability to deliver specialist glazing solutions on large-scale, technically demanding healthcare schemes.
Rob Lofthouse, operations manager at Polar NE said the project had required “out-of-the-box thinking” from the outset, particularly due to the scale of the installation and the constraints of the London site.
He added: “Trying to install 160 healthcare windows is not easy. Doing it in the middle of a congested capital city, on an incredibly tight site, was always going to take some careful planning.
“The decision to install the windows off-site, into precast concrete, made the process far more manageable and also helped improve safety by allowing the work to be completed at ground level.
“Highgate East was never going to be an easy job, but that is exactly why we were trusted to deliver it. After 17 months, the project was completed on time, and it has strengthened our expertise, confidence and capacity to deliver projects of any size and in any location.”
Polar NE specialises in architectural glazing products for healthcare, mental healthcare and secure environments. Its work at Highgate East included products designed to support the safety, durability and performance requirements of modern inpatient mental health facilities, improving lives by design.
