As a successful SME, there will come a time when you outgrow your facilities and are ready for the next step. Your next move will be critical – but is rife with challenges. At the project’s heart is a drive to balance function, safety, compliance and your future growth, while offering the best possible working environment for an expanding team. With the right planning, budget allocation, design and communication, you can create a workspace that fulfils your scientific goals and inspires your future, says Liz Sparrow, Partner at Ridge.
Stage One: Lab Planning
This isthe foundation of your future lab’s success. Working with expert lab planners, you communicate your operational demands and explain your workflows and equipment requirements. Your scientific goals stay front and centre to these discussions, so they fully align with your lab’s physical and technical requirements. The final layout will be flexible according to workflow. It will be safe, efficient and regulatory compliant, and able to seamlessly adopt new technologies. It’s a plan agreed by your stakeholders that is unique to your business and will inform a meaningful design.
Stage Two: Design
An architect who understands labs, will develop detailed layouts that satisfy the needs of the science and the desires of humans, identified in the planning stage. Whether your fit out occupies a new space or is a retrofit within the confines of an existing building, the design will blend many complex requirements. It will deliver on the science, meet environmental targets, maximise the focus on your people and make sure that communities can easily interact.
Stage Three: Project Management
Co-ordination, communication, constant problem solving and ongoing quality checks are all essential for a smooth fit out journey. A Project Manager is the premium grade oil that ensures your project flows to the expected timelines and budgets, minimising disruption to your day-to-day business.
Stage Four: Engineering
This brings your design to life. Mechanical and Electrical Engineers alongside Sustainability Consultants deliver highly serviced, sustainable solutions while working in live environments, often in constrained sites. They focus on balancing the science requirements and intense energy demands created by air flow and temperature control, with the need for environmental solutions. They ensure safe and reliable operation, regardless of the scientific stresses that are imposed.
Stage Five: Cost Management
Your budget will doubtlessly exert many pressures on your future growth, so managing it through every stage is critical. A Cost Manager will be involved in forecasting, procurement and balancing your lab’s practical needs against financial constraints. As cost overruns jeopardise your growth and impact your people, this stage is key in helping ensure you deliver your fit out on budget, while maintaining quality and compliance.
“A lab fit-out is a significant investment in growth and reflects a need to operate at maximum efficiency and sustainability. Each stage of the journey will blend to determine your ultimate success and ensure your future can adapt to new technologies and future growth plans”.
Liz Sparrow, Ridge Lead Architect Science and Research
Ridge and Partners has a team of lab fit out specialists who together address all five stages of the journey. They have a vast array of experience creating solutions for their many science-based clients, for technically demanding projects.
Contact:
Dr Peter Coxhead – Lab Planning
Liz Sparrow– Architecture
Phil Kelly – Sustainability
Oliver Bannister – Project Management
Richard Gubbins – M&E Engineering
Tom Morshead – Cost Management
