Abu Dhabi’s $870 million Al Mafraq Hospital expansion has been voted one of the world’s top drylining projects in a prestigious international awards competition organised by Saint-Gobain Gypsum.

The project, which relies on over 800,000 sq m of Gyproc plasterboard and one million linear metres of Gypframe metal profiles from Gyproc Middle East, was selected from 87 short listed projects in 33 countries to receive the coveted President’s Prize in the ninth Saint-Gobain International Trophy Competition.

The President’s Prize is a unique discretionary award, presented every two years, which recognises the most outstanding new installation of Saint-Gobain plasterboard systems in the world, and was presented to joint venture contractors, Al Massa and International Décor, at a special ceremony in Berlin, Germany recently.

Undertaken for client, The Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, the expansion of Al Mafraq has regenerated the existing site and tripled the number of treatment rooms to 690 beds with the addition of four 10-12-storey patient towers, which include two royal suites and 32 VVIP suites.

Throughout the hospital, high performance Gyproc systems, including GypLyner wall linings, Gyproc MF Ceilings, GypWall CLASSIC and GypWall QUIET, have been lined with a range of Gyproc plasterboards to meet different performance requirement.

They have been installed to meet exacting levels of sound performance in treatment rooms, operating theatres and corridors; moisture resistance in patient bathrooms; fire resistance in corridors and other vulnerable areas and to provide impact resistance in high traffic areas. The sustainable systems also contribute to the building’s Level 1 Pearl Rating under Abu Dhabi’s ESTIDAMA Sustainable Building Code.

Specified to American standards, the team at Gyproc Middle East worked hard to provide a full Gyproc specification from locally manufactured and supplied products, which overcame logistical and environmental challenges posed by the original specification.

The team worked closely with client and contractors to provide full technical support, details and test data, and then carried out more than 2000-hours of on-site system training for over 100 installers and site supervisors, to ensure that the systems were installed to the highest possible standards.

The outcome, in the words of the judges, represents “A great example of a project where the contractor and specification team worked closely to achieve an impressive end result”- and a project that sees yet another of the Middle East’s ground-breaking buildings recognised in a major international awards. – TradeArabia News Service