The Willmott Dixon Knowledge Hub

Frequently asked questions about our business and the services we provide.

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  • What are ALN/SEND schools?
    ALN (Additional Learning Needs, Wales) and SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, England) are schools designed to support learners with diverse needs. Typical features include specialist classrooms, sensory and therapy spaces, calm rooms, robust finishes, integrated assistive technology, and carefully planned circulation. Designs prioritise accessibility, safety, and inclusion for pupils, staff and families.
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  • What is a blue light facility?
    Blue light facility is the industry term for buildings that serve emergency services such as police, fire and rescue, and ambulance. They demand resilient building systems, secure design, efficient response times, specialist training spaces, and often co‑location or shared control rooms. Design standards emphasise durability, safety, and operational efficiency under peak‑load conditions.
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  • What is a later-living care home?
    A later living care home is a residential care home with advanced care facilities for residents who are later in life, combining dementia-friendly layouts, therapeutic outdoor space and integrated health/social care pathways—now often targeting net-zero operation and high BREEAM ratings
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  • What is a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC)?
    A place-based vehicle (backed by devolved powers) that accelerates complex regeneration by aligning planning, investment and delivery across multiple partners.
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  • What is a mixed‑use development?
    A mixed‑use development is a development that combines multiple uses—such as homes, retail, leisure, workplaces and transport—within one masterplan or building. The aim is to create lively, walkable places with day‑long activity and strong public realm. Successful schemes balance placemaking, permeability, management, servicing, and community needs across different user groups and times of day.
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  • What is a Net Zero hospital?
    A Net Zero hospital is planned, built and operated to minimise whole‑life emissions while maintaining quality medical service. Approaches include high‑performance fabric, electrification of heat (e.g., heat pumps), smart controls, on‑site renewables, low‑carbon back‑up strategies, efficient clinical equipment and airflow systems, and circular principles for fit‑out and maintenance. Resilience and infection‑control standards remain paramount.
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  • What is a sterile services facility?
    A sterile services facility is a highly controlled clean-room environment for compounding medicines and sterilising instruments at regional scale—demanding strict process, MEP and cleanroom specs, often delivered alongside broader health estates upgrades.
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  • What is an integrated health hub?
    An integrated health hub is a single location hosting multiple primary/community health services (often with community space or housing), improving access, collaboration and outcomes.
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  • What is an Integrated Health Hub?
    An Integrated Health Hub brings multiple health and wellbeing services together—such as primary care, community diagnostics, mental health, social care, and voluntary‑sector support—often co‑located with flexible spaces for prevention and community activity. Hubs improve access, reduce duplication, support multidisciplinary teams, and can ease pressure on acute settings.
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  • What is heritage restoration in construction?
    Heritage restoration preserves and enhances historic assets while meeting modern standards. Principles include understanding significance, minimal and reversible interventions, like‑for‑like repair where appropriate, and sensitive integration of new services, accessibility and fire safety. Consents and stakeholder engagement are key, and success is measured by cultural value, longevity, and community benefit.
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  • What is the ‘golden thread’ theme in construction?
    The golden thread is an aspirational standard in construction to create an all encompassing, secure, accurate, up-to-date digital record of a building’s design, decisions, products and changes, maintained through design, build and occupation—so dutyholders can evidence safety, especially for higher-risk residential buildings.
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