How to Paint a French Door Without Losing Your Mind

In all of this, digital is our strongest ally.

‘Everything about this place is space,’ says Raj Goel.‘There’s nice space everywhere.’.

The facility generously houses five theatres, thirty inpatient and twenty day case beds, fifteen consulting rooms and an extensive rehabilitation department.Describing the process of layout design for the hospital, Wood notes that the more Bryden Wood understood about the hospital and its patients, the more they were able to ‘codify their operations, their adjacencies and their spaces…’ He discusses the fact that Bryden Wood were able to benefit from a considerable amount of consultation and direct input from the professionals who were actually going to be using the facility.All of that knowledge was then enshrined into a three dimensional design tool, he says, which became like a ‘vocabulary of spaces…’.

Wood also describes how such a level of understanding about the function of the building, led logically to the next step of applying a level of systemization to its construction, in order to underpin it and make construction more efficient.‘We understood...the scale and the spans that the structure would require’ he says.

This enabled the development of a system which is ‘a hybrid, precast concrete and steel system specifically for Circle,’ one which follows the ‘grain’ and ‘functional requirements,’ of all the spaces to be contained within the building.

‘This made the delivery of the building faster,’ says Wood.Internal windows will be needed in labs with dangerous atmospheres to ensure line of sight for occupant safety, which will further impact the below ceiling coordination.

While external windows will need to be maintained to introduce daylight, this can lead to solar heat gains.Blinds can be used but they can trap dirt, so we will place them between secondary glazing.

Alternatively, we use solar film and external blinds, and if possible, design the building so the lab is north-facing..In our experience, most of the issues with a laboratory design stem from the client laboratory equipment list.