The Austin Company were commissioned to provide preliminary design, detail design and construction services for Refurbishment and Upgrade of over 6,714 m² of research laboratories, excluding plant and roof space.

The project consists of refurbishing the existing first and most of the second floor accommodation. The concept was to allow 6 existing Chemistry Departments to expand and update their facilities.

The general design principals were to Phase the project in such a way as to:

1. Eliminate any double decanting
2. Reduce the construction Programme
3. Address Materials management issues, both incoming and outgoing.
4. Rationalise Laboratory adjacencies together with office areas and ancillary accommodation.
5. Increase potential flexibility of the laboratory areas
6. Minimise impact of the refurbishment on existing occupiers

Once the general arrangements and adjacencies were established a series of structured user discussions were conducted in order to establish the detail requirements for each individual department. These formed the basis of a comprehensive room data sheet directory which detailed all elements of individual rooms including furniture.

The general Phasing Strategy was then divides into smaller construction zones which allowed earlier start dates for sub-contractors allowing better quality control. This culminated in a shorter construction programme a reduction from 18 to 12 months.

The results exceeded all Client expectations and provided MSD savings of over £1M.