Good design makes safety a pleasure

When Orica Consumer Products (OCP) sold its industrial paints division in 1998 to focus its attention on the decorative coatings business, it asked Tony Green to design a New Technology Centre that would showcase its view "that research and development is critical to OCP in order to develop innovative technologies that differentiate OCP from its competitors, demonstrate to the marketplace that Orica has a commitment to its Consumer Products division, and support the growth and margins of OCP's premium brands."

The Centre comprises a main laboratory building of 2600 m2. The ground floor includes offices, laboratories and applications areas, with a plant room over. Adjacent are a warehouse, pilot plant, amenities building and waste management area.

Tony Green's knowledge of dangerous goods and his years of association with ICI, designing and modifying laboratories, created a communication platform between scientists and architect, which continued to grow throughout the project. Green's insistence that all staff members be consulted and play an on-going role in developing, not only their own requirements, but share in building the philosophy behind the design, created a trust that was never broken and ultimately led to a successful building outcome where all staff are proud of their contribution.

Technology Centre planning

The concept for the layout of the Technology Centre originated from Green's experience in hospital and chemical plant design where the movement of people, equipment and goods is critical to maintaining operational safety and efficiency. Circulation is of paramount importance in the Technology Centre where the use of hazardous materials and their containment is a constant safety issue and where resources are shared by up to eight groups. The user groups embraced the concept of separating circulation within the building into two main parallel corridors running the full length of the building.

These corridors separate the main functions of the Technology Centre into three zones: office, laboratory and applications. Circulation of hazardous and potentially messy materials is restricted to the 'black' corridor, which runs between the laboratories and the applications areas. The 'clean' corridor runs between the laboratories and the office area and is used for the circulation of people and paperwork between the office and laboratory areas. In this way the safety risk is graded across the building with the most densely occupied, low risk office area located furthest from the least occupied, highest risk applications area.

The concept of the 'black' corridor also included the development of a convenient trolley transport system to avoid accidents, reduce spillage and encourage the return of unused materials to safe stores rather than build up material stocks within the laboratories ie, reduce the build-up of 'fuel loads' in populated areas.

The two major corridors also serve functions within the air conditioning system - the 'black' corridor acts as a balancing zone and the 'clean' corridor acts as an air conditioning buffer between the two areas in the case of a dangerous chemical spill, preventing the spread of toxic gas or solvent vapour from laboratories into the office area.

Safe circulation is addressed throughout the building. The straight 'clean and black' corridors running the full length of the building with exits visible at each end maximise safe egress from the building in the case of emergency. The escape route these provide is easily understood by occupants even when disorientation is caused by smoke, etc. Every function within the Technology Centre has two routes of escape.

Loading and unloading of dangerous goods is also carried out according to the zoning system, with the highest risk activities carried out in the least populated areas of the centre. The largest containers are unloaded into a 4 hour-rated concrete warehouse. The goods are decanted within the warehouse and transported in smaller containers to the applications areas, further reducing the impact of accidental spills in the more populated areas.

Visibility is another key safety issue identified by the design team and maintained throughout the Technology Centre. In traditional laboratories designed under the fire compartment provisions of the Laboratory Code, laboratory workers are out of sight from one another behind impervious laboratory walls where unsafe practices may continue unobserved. Also, in situations where toxic chemicals are used, a staff member, if working alone in a laboratory, may be overcome by fumes and collapse without anyone else being aware of it. To avoid this situation, heavy-duty laminated glass is used internally throughout the Technology Centre, so that visual contact is maintained at all times between staff in the office, laboratory and applications areas.

The central spine of laboratories is developed around the repetition of a modular design theme where, in the main, similar facilities are available to all. At this stage, some laboratories are designated for solvent-based work requiring special procedures. However, all laboratories are adaptable to changing requirements. The modular approach is aimed at accommodating changing group needs, changing functions and changing occupancy rates without requiring potentially disruptive building alterations.

The three linear functional zones together with the overhead linear plant room provide opportunity for future growth and adaptability over time. Within each zone, facilities can be shared and uses are flexible. The simple linear circulation system also means that zones can be extended or services modified without significant changes to the existing building plans.

Building form

OCP scientists had previously worked in enclosed laboratories with little or no connection to the outdoors, so access to natural light and a sense of flow between indoors and outdoors became strong driving factors to all staff involved in the design. External walls of the laboratory building are extensively glazed, with the roof appearing to float above, supported only by steel truss columns which extend outside the external wall line (to free up internal layouts), seemingly independent of the glazing and further contributing to the sense of openness. The fine truss columns create a rhythm across the north and south facades and express the industrial/technical nature of the building's function. Access to natural light has a functional importance where accurate colour rendition is critical to many functions of the centre.

In contrast to the openness of the laboratory building, the external walls of the pilot plant and warehouse are all pre-cast concrete to express their fire safe function. These areas do not have any permanent occupants, so visual access to the outdoors is not critical. However, exterior views are provided by large circular portholes at selected intervals. The pre-cast panels provide containment against dangerous goods spills in this area where the largest amount of dangerous goods is stored.

The curved roof forms are deliberately playful and create a sense of dynamism in an otherwise 'function-driven' building form. Evoking timeless images of movement and forms in Australian nature, they represent the occupants as an established company that will be operating long into the future, and at the same time progressive and continually developing and adapting - moving with the flow of changing demands. The ceiling in the office area, lined with perforated clear finished plywood panels, follows the external roof form and creates an organic warmth and an uplifting sense to the space. A large number of roof-mounted exhaust stacks are necessary in a facility such as this. In the Technology Centre these are grouped together to form sculptural elements, surrounded by perforated metal cowls that project from the plant room roof acknowledging their purpose and location.

Courtyards

OCP is largely a 'colour' business, hence staff ability to experience the outdoors (particularly, the colours in nature) while in their workspaces is further heightened by the introduction of a 'four seasons' theme to the Technology courtyard. Deciduous plants were deliberately chosen to reflect the changing atmosphere within the courtyard as the year's seasons come and go.

A smaller covered courtyard is also located adjacent to the conference room. Its theme is 'rainforest', once again drawing on the colours in nature. The conference room also doubles as a colour studio, with the courtyard used to assess colour rendition in outdoor light conditions, and available for functions associated with the colour studio use.

Conclusion

At the conclusion of the project, the early financial benchmarking projections were confirmed. The Technology Centre completed cost was two-thirds the cost per square metre of the nearest benchmark laboratory building in Australia. This was largely due to the use of common materials and the simple structural system. Preference was given to materials with good life cycles and potential for reusability such as glass, steel and concrete.

At the opening of the Centre, Orica's managing director in acknowledging the value of the close working relationships between the user groups and the architects stated that,

"This facility recognises the need to nurture innovation with facilities that draw out adventurous ideas and initiatives from our people."

How right he was!