Construction of the green Nelson Man-dela Children’s Hospital, which will be located in Parktown, Johannesburg, is expected to begin in the last quarter of 2013 and the building’s architects hope to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification.

LEED is a green building tool that addresses the entire building life cycle, recognising world-class building strategies. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust preferred to achieve an internationally recognised accreditation for the building.

The hospital is currently involved in a project that entails capital funding being raised by donors for the R1-billion required for construction and medical equipment, as well as the training of medical professionals, while operational expenditure will be provided by government through the Department of Health.

The hospital trust has undertaken several fundraising projects to meet the capital target. The LEED Gold certification will be met once materials and fittings, bought with these donations, are obtained.

As part of the fundraising for the hospital, all proceeds from this year’s Nelson Mandela Challenge, a yearly soccer match between South Africa and invited teams, will be donated towards the hospital.

A consortium comprising architecture firms Sheppard Robson International and John Cooper Architecture, both from the UK, as well as local architecture firms GAPP Architects & Urban Designers and Reuben Reddy Architects, has designed the hospital.

The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) donated the property to the hospital trust and the site is on the Wits College of Education campus.

The referral hospital is expected to open in October 2015 and will incorporate several green building aspects, including the recycling and storage of rainwater and the use of natural light and ventilation.

“We have strived for best practice in sustain-ability in all aspects of the design. Ultimately, a sustainable building is a building that is useful for a long time.The hospital has, therefore, been designed so that it will serve its patients and be a top institution for many decades to come,” says lead architect and partner at Sheppard Robson International Rod McAllister.

The four-storey hospital will house 200 beds, with the capacity to expand to 300 beds and eight operating theatres with new diagnostics capabilities. There will also be dedicated accommodation for parents.

McAllister notes that, while hospitals are usually built with diagnostics, treatment and ward blocks, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital is unique, as the wards are located on one level to take advantage of the site and increase sociability and reduce the need for visitors to use the lifts.

He adds that, while the construction is fairly traditional, there are colourful splashes in the solar shades of the windows, large moni-tor elevations that face the Johannesburg city centre and tiles along the central spine.

As part of its dedication to be a speciality or tertiary-care-focused hospital, identi-fied centres of excellence will provide interdisciplinary and collaborative clinical excellence by focusing on disease- or system- based patient needs.

“It is believed that the creation of such centres of excellence will attract and retain high-quality staff in the medical, nursing and allied health disciplines, many of whom are currently in short supply in South Africa. These centres also enhance the hospital’s image and identity to attract referrals and serve the needs of children from a broad geographic region,” McAllister states.

The centres of excellence also support high-quality graduate medical education and will produce the medical-surgical subspeciality practitioners for the future.