Imperial College London
Sir Alexander Fleming (SAF) Building Laboratory
Imperial College London’s world-class reputation in science, engineering, business and medicine has cemented its status as a global top 10 university. As well as its distinguished teaching credentials, the university also provides world-leading facilities.
To maintain the superior standard of its laboratories, it entrusted the 8build team to deliver a challenging and complex refurbishment project. Having already worked as a design partner to deliver laboratory space for the university, we used our detailed knowledge of the building to deliver a fit out in occupation, that prioritised the needs of students and staff.
KEY FACTS
Project: Fit Out
Sector: Education
Size: 17,300 sq ft
Programme: 41 weeks
Contract: NEC 3 option A
Procurement: Single-stage
TEAM
Architect: BMJ Architects
PM: Imperial College London
PQS: Henry Riley Consulting
Services: MG Partnership
The Project
The Faculty of Medicine located on the South Kensington Campus needed an overhaul of its existing basement laboratory facility and complete refurbishment of its CL2 and CL3 suites.
The Sir Alexander Fleming Building is located at the heart of the campus and provides a large range of lecture theatres, classrooms and foyer space. To ensure that teaching and learning could continue, we devised extensive noise testing and a programme of out of hours working, to limit the disruption to the teaching floors above.
Reducing Noise
Before the works started, 8build conducted a comprehensive range of noise workshops. Using noise meters to record the sound within the lecture theatres and at other locations around the building, we were able to plan a programme that managed refurbishment works around the daily activities of staff and students.
Quality Guaranteed
The university’s project stakeholders wanted to achieve the very highest quality of build, to ensure their CL suites maintained their world-leading reputation. To do this, we introduced project ‘hold points’ within the programme. This allowed the design team and stakeholders to inspect the completion of significant activities before the next phase commenced.
8build are a pleasure to work with and produced an outcome that myself and the Chemistry Department are absolutely happy and satisfied with. I found 8build both proactive and responsive in equal measure to any issues/changes that arose as the project progressed.
Anna McDadd, Building Manager, Imperial College London