ISPEN – R&D Facility
ISPEN
The Opportunity
Austin collaborated with Ipsen to design and deliver:
- A range of office and breakout facilities for over 100 staff and scientists with adaptable and agile workspaces.
- Staff dining areas which can be used for individual or team working throughout the day and accommodate ‘town hall’ meetings.
- A THC1 open plan ‘Superlab’, which promotes collaboration between scientists, fosters flexible working, and provides a productive environment for science.
- High containment THC2 and THC3 laboratories to meet Ipsen’s stringent operational and safety requirements and accommodate their current and future fumigation strategies.
- An increase in the available rooftop plant area by 50% and provision of four ventilation systems allowing THC3 containment areas to be independently fumigated.
- Limited floor to floor heights created a challenge requiring removal of existing raised floors. A solution was developed for accommodating level changes efficiently, without the need for ramps.
- A rigorous security philosophy was developed to meet Ipsen’s, Home Office and Anti-terrorism legislation.
Part of the success of this facility is directly attributable to:
- Close collaboration between Ipsen’s and Austin’s expertise facilitated early identification of challenges.
- Designing in 3D using Revit (BIM) to provide a high degree of certainty to ensure delivery on site and easy maintenance once handed over. This meant there were very few site changes and therefore more control and certainty of project cost and time.
The Solution
- Ipsen is a global specialty-driven pharmaceutical group selling in excess of 20 drug types in more than 115 countries with an R&D expenditure of around €193 million.
- Ipsen’s ambition is to be a leader in specialty healthcare solutions for targeted debilitating diseases. This strategy called for the consolidation of their research in the heart of leading biotechnological and life sciences hubs.
- Ipsen had undertaken a preliminary study which sought to define broad proposals for accommodating their Oxford research group, at Milton Park. They then appointed Austin to undertake a critique of these proposals, to develop them into a viable detailed design and to deliver this 2700m² prestigious science facility.
“Austin’s team have delivered a superb new laboratory and office space in which Ipsen’s UK R&D team are now located. From the design process and through the construction Phase, Austin have listened to the needs of the Ipsen team and understood the vision for the new site. The laboratory requirements were challenging, and yet the construction phase has been completed within eight months, on time to accept the personnel transferring from other Ipsen UK sites.” – John Chaddock, VP Neurology Site Head, Ipsen Bioinnovation.