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28 November 2003
Bovis Lend Lease and GSK celebrate revolutionary design in Harlow, UK
The Pharmaceutical Division of Bovis Lend Lease has helped GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) achieve its goal of creating a flexible, state-of-the-art research facility by breaking with conventional design and introducing innovative, preassembled modular service units and a multi storey side-mounted plant room. These pioneering measures contributed to shortening the construction time by three months.
The impressive Discovery Research Automation Facility (DRAF) at GSK’s Harlow site in Essex, UK, was officially opened by Lord Sainsbury on 21st October 2003. The £28 million project is part of a Global programme to automate key stages of drug discovery.
Bovis Lend Lease was charged with creating a flexible and adaptable space that could be constructed with minimum disruption to other, nearby, site operations already in place. The building design philosophy the team developed to address this challenge involves large open robotics halls with service distribution run on a high level matrix providing drop-down umbilical connections to the equipment. Utilities are housed in specially designed Pre-assembled Modular units (PAMs), facilitating any number of room layouts by delivering communication, power, fume and general building services throughout the site via the matrix.
The off-site construction and testing of the 36-metre-long PAMs directly contributed to shortening construction time by three months. The units, which were divided into four sections for transportation to the site, were quickly and easily assembled into the roof space of the facility upon arrival. The factory production allowed overlap with the site program, reducing the overall timeline by three months. Only 17 months after groundbreaking, the first 130 scientists were able to move into the facility and commence work. In addition, because the construction of the units was closer to a manufacturing process than on site production, they were produced to ‘zero defect’ working practice.
Previously unattainable levels of flexibility are achieved by combining this modular system with GSK’s Flexilab approach of no fixed furniture, little drainage and removable fume cupboards, allowing reorganisation of the space within a matter of hours. Davis Amos, UK Operations Manager at Bovis Lend Lease explains, “This unconventional new design will provide significant cost savings when introducing new processing techniques as it will enable the team at GSK to modify internal laboratory designs in days rather than weeks.”
In another innovative design move, Bovis Lend Lease included “relocatable” walls and a side, rather than roof mounted plant room that spanned the three-storey development. GSK wanted to de-couple the building from the activities that would go on inside it. By running the plant room down the side of all three floors, Bovis Lend Lease has enabled each floor to be engineered to fit its exact need.
Both parties teams are proud and excited to have been involved in such a landmark project, a fact which is summarised by Steve Finch, Director of Operations in Discovery Research at GSK and lead client representative during the project: “We’ve got everyone interested in making a break from conventional laboratory design. The concepts developed in this project will be the foundation of GSK laboratory projects of the future."
More Information
Bovis Lend Lease is among the world's top ten construction management companies and a world leader in the delivery of project management and construction services. The Pharmaceutical Division of Bovis Lend Lease is a global company in its own right, uniquely positioned to provide a wide range of consultancy, engineering and project services exclusively to the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Healthcare and related industries world-wide. The Pharmaceutical Division has in excess of 800 specialist staff globally.
For more information please contact:
Craig Chapman
Bovis Lend Lease
T: 01252 703 663
E: craig.chapman@lendlease.com
Sara Derbyshire
Band London Ltd
T: 01296 394 614
E: sarad@bandlondon.co.uk
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