If you are a young woman starting out in architecture, being a woman shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your career.

A permanent building may have different drivers, but lessons can still be learned from highly efficient on-site works such as the circus tent.. One aim of a fully considered DfMA strategy is to enable smooth running of the construction site.To create a well-orchestrated assembly line with productive workers carrying out pre-determined, standardised and well-understood tasks in predictable timeframes..

In short, we want construction sites to be more like factories.. Off-site and modular construction: are factories really all that great?.Prefabrication in factories (off-site construction) is often thought of as a panacea, a sure-fire way for construction sites to achieve greater productivity.However, factories can also be run inefficiently, and if traditional construction methods are simply shifted into a factory setting, the benefits of MMC can be diluted or lost..

In some cases, building off-site in a factory may even be less efficient than on-site construction.For example, prefabricated 3D modules (used in modular construction) involve many additional costs compared to conventional build.

These include transportation (a pre-fabricated room is mostly air, after all) and heavy plant for lifting modules into place.

Unless modules are fabricated on a just-in time basis they also have to be stored which costs money, especially if that storage needs to be sheltered from the elements.Some lab equipment can be extremely heavy, and the beam layout may dictate where the equipment can sit within the space.

We will also always consider how this lab equipment gets to the location in the first place, and any subsequent special requirements..Mechanical Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) requirements for lab design.

A laboratory design should be services-led.It’s up to the services engineer to fully understand the client laboratory equipment, the room requirements, the health and safety issues and the processes within the lab, as well as understanding what the other disciplines need to provide.