Biopharma Company
Sycamore House
Our client, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer immunotherapies, appointed our specialist team to deliver the fit out of its vibrant workplace and laboratory space within Sycamore House, located on the Stevenage Bioscience Campus in the heart of the famous Golden Triangle. With the experience to manage the intricacies and risks of technical laboratory fit out within an occupied building, our team were committed to going the extra mile to ensure the project ran smoothly.
KEY FACTS
Project: Fit Out
Sector: Life Science
Size: 32,000 sq ft
Programme: 18 weeks
Contract: JCT Design and Build
TEAM
Architect: Fairhurst Design Group
PM: 3PM
PQS: CB3 Consultants
Services: Scotch Partners
Structural: Glanville Consulting Limited
The Project
The project transformed the existing CAT ‘A’ space into a radiant, connected and flexible laboratory and workspace. Split across two areas; the ground floor CL2 laboratory includes the fit out of six bespoke, high-quality spaces including quality control, microbiology, product testing and process development laboratories as well as a QC GMP store and sample office and two storage rooms containing laboratory freezers, whilst the first floor is dedicated to collaborative office space consisting of a large open plan office area with bench desking, break out seating areas, meeting rooms featuring high spec IT/AV installations, ‘phone booth’ pods and a bespoke coffee bar/tea point.
Design Development
Our experience of delivering previous CL2 laboratories has taught us that getting the detailing right during this stage ensures that quality is not compromised during the build stage. We drove this process by hosting collaborative design workshops where we interrogated the design detailing. Although this meant we held some intensive workshops it resulted in a quality design.
Procurement
On appointment we worked collaboratively with the team to identify elements of the project that could pose a potential procurement risk, such as the Laboratory furniture. We worked together to identify the packages that required early orders to allow design and manufacturing to proceed. We drove the design development process to ensure that each element was approved in time to secure the all-important factory slots.
Co-ordination of Laboratory Equipment
We hosted ‘walk through’ workshops with the individual Laboratory Managers to review every aspect of the proposed design of the laboratories. These we hugely valuable sessions as it enabled the Laboratory Managers to fully understand the proposed design of their laboratories and ‘feel’ part of the process and share their detailed knowledge of their particular works within the laboratories. Comments such as the adjusting shelving to allow top-loading equipment and isolating vibration sensitive equipment enabled us to tweak the design.
Base Build
On possession of the site area we were able to fully interrogate and validate the base build fabric and services, which unfortunately identified a number of issues. We worked together with the team to schedule the correction of these elements into our delivery programme.
QA of the Build
We are obsessive about checking quality at every stage of the build, as we know from previous experience of delivering CL2 laboratories this can compromise the ability of the laboratory to function fully. Meticulous checks by our management team along with our design team were performed throughout the build. Only once everyone was happy with the quality achieved, would the follow-on works be allowed to proceed.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank 8build for delivering a fantastic and high-quality space.
Client, Biopharma Company