Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

The majority of my time on phase 3 has been focussed on working at the London School of Hygiene of Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). LSHTM’s building was opened in 1929 and has undergone several overhauls and extension over the last 80 odd years. This combined with the fact the keeping of record drawings seems to have been considered as an embuggerance as opposed to good practice made working out how I could modify their systems a bit more tricky than it needed to be.

If LSHTM were to be considered as left of arc, I have more recently been working on a project at the right of arc end of the spectrum; the re-modelling of Circle Reading Hospital which I have previously blogged on. The scope has now been expanded slightly. The client now wants to change the use of a waiting /reception area to a group activity (physio) room. This has implications with regards to the level of ventilation required to the space and the cooling load required. Although not contractually completed to a specific BIM level, Circle Reading was designed in Revit with the associated Navisworks models still in existence. This has allowed me to quickly interrogate the model via a desk top study to see what is supposed to be in the ceiling void and work out what space and services we have to play with. The client’s F&M team have also been very good at keeping records, so I have been able to interrogate the original main contractor’s commissioning results and compare them against the original design specification and schedules. From there it has been a case of applying the necessary calculations to work out what the new load is, confirming if the existing system has sufficient spare capacity and in what areas modifications need to be made to allow my proposal to work. Of course all this would have been possible without the information I was given, but it would have required hunting around the building for equipment details, getting airflow velocities and getting into ceiling voids to see what is actually there. The use of 3-D modelling and good record keeping has allowed me to meet the client’s intent of getting a proposal out cheaply and quickly. There will be significant caveats applied to my design note as I’ve not confirmed my design start point on site; however, the client is aware of this risk and happy to proceed.