Professor John Dyson spent more than 25 years at GlaxoSmithKline, eventually ending his career as VP, Head of Capital Strategy and Design, where he focussed on developing a long-term strategic approach to asset management..
So we designed a trench system, covered with a grille, to surround all the critical areas, and we extract the air from the trench.Any nitrogen is pulled into the trench by the extraction (we’re extracting the air from the whole space through the trench), but also by gravity because it’s heavier than air.
It seems almost obvious, but because it was a groundbreaking MEP design , we did comprehensive testing and modelling to make sure it would work, using computational fluid dynamics (a digital way of predicting how air will move through a building).GSK – quite rightly – have a very strong Health and Safety culture, so the testing threshold was incredibly high.But the system passed, we installed it and it’s working very well.. Also in Stevenage, we worked with GSK on the lab grade water system.
They had a very large system, which had been put in 20 years ago.They wanted to analyse how much of its capacity was used and when, and what its overall condition was.
We did a full review, which showed that because conditions had changed since it was designed, it was massively oversized, and not fit for purpose anymore.
As a result, we've done a feasibility study for abandoning the existing system and putting in several smaller plants.Contracts are split up between designers and contractors, and everyone tries to minimise or pass on risk.
The trouble with this is that it destroys value for the client – it removes the big picture view, which is really important, especially on highly complex and intricate jobs like laboratories or some of the others I’ve described here.Some of the time, we find ourselves having to fix work that has been poorly conceived and carried out because of this way of working.
Systems that simply don’t work.We want to take on entire contracts in order to be able to deliver the complete solution that is best for our clients.