Pharmaceutical facility design: adding value with construction technology and ‘Chip Thinking®'

Chips help speed up the process, because we can move chunks of the design around very quickly and keep data associated with them.

In short, we want construction sites to be more like factories.. Off-site and modular construction: are factories really all that great?.Prefabrication in factories (off-site construction) is often thought of as a panacea, a sure-fire way for construction sites to achieve greater productivity.

Pharmaceutical facility design: adding value with construction technology and ‘Chip Thinking®'

However, factories can also be run inefficiently, and if traditional construction methods are simply shifted into a factory setting, the benefits of MMC can be diluted or lost..In some cases, building off-site in a factory may even be less efficient than on-site construction.For example, prefabricated 3D modules (used in modular construction) involve many additional costs compared to conventional build.

Pharmaceutical facility design: adding value with construction technology and ‘Chip Thinking®'

These include transportation (a pre-fabricated room is mostly air, after all) and heavy plant for lifting modules into place.Unless modules are fabricated on a just-in time basis they also have to be stored which costs money, especially if that storage needs to be sheltered from the elements.

Pharmaceutical facility design: adding value with construction technology and ‘Chip Thinking®'

3D modules also occupy large amounts of factory floor space and therefore absorb a high proportion of factory overheads..

If these additional modular construction costs can be offset by large improvements in construction site efficiency, for example by relocating wet trades or complex specialist trades away from the site, a 3D module might make sense.The electrical engineer should review with the client the earthing requirements, including static discharge within the floor construction or electromagnetic interference for sensitive equipment, and inform the lab design architect.

Some client laboratory equipment can be damaged or become dangerous if there’s a loss of power, so understanding any Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) requirements early on is essential.. As usual, the coordination between the MEP services becomes the difficult part of the latter stages.It’s not unusual to have an extremely busy ceiling void, so it is important to start with the drainage and then the ventilation.

We have to bear in mind the coordination below the ceiling too, with dropping services, wall-mounted isolation and panels, shut-off valves and emergency stop buttons, all competing for space on the walls.Internal windows will be needed in labs with dangerous atmospheres to ensure line of sight for occupant safety, which will further impact the below ceiling coordination.