Amalgamation of Multi Department Laboratory
Confidential client
Cambridgeshire
Bowman Riley was commissioned to provide architecture and project management on a state-of-the-art Multi Department Laboratory Bio Science Laboratory, bringing three separate departments from various sites across the UK under one roof. This project was initiated to consolidate the departments so that they could become more efficient by sharing resources and to upgrade facilities. The facility is required to meet the client’s specialist needs and to become a show-piece for the company. To provide the client with the best return on their investment and for the speed of occupation, it was decided to re-use an existing building structure and external fabric. This had the added implication of clearing an existing building of high-level contamination and accommodating the required spatial requirements of three equally important departments within a restricted footprint. Due to the nature of the project in bringing three departments together, we facilitated a number of workshops with key stakeholders to understand each department’s functional requirements with a view to getting an agreed layout.
The layout contains a number of different laboratory spaces including Ames labs for the testing of chemical compounds for carcinogenic properties, virology labs, cell biology labs and slide scoring rooms. In addition to the laboratories are the associated accommodation of cold stores, prep rooms, general labs, instrument rooms and general offices. We consulted with the various suppliers of specialist equipment to ensure there would be no issues at the back-end of the project with their installations.
This project required very tight time-scales within a live site with minimum disruption. We developed a phased strategy to reduce the impact of the Multi Department Laboratory development. Our role also involved a number of other specific responsibilities such as the client departmental consultations throughout the project, GLP consideration, understanding of highly specialist equipment installations and procurement assistance of certain specific elements vital to the lab spaces.