The important thing is to fully understand the outcomes clients are aiming to achieve, he says, be it speed, greatest flexibility, or lowest costs.
Raj Goel agrees when talking about the outpatient rooms.‘There’s a clinic area next to each room,’ he says, ‘which is very good and that doesn’t always happen in other places.’.
Maswiken comments upon the ample sizes of the recovery spaces.He, Highton and Goel remark upon the particular spaciousness of the theatres, with Goel commenting that this is a ‘major attraction’ of Circle and highlighting the fact that the anesthetic rooms are also very spacious.. ‘This facility had a particularly large percentage of orthopedic surgeons,’ says Wood, ‘and orthopedic surgeons needed a very particular form of operating theatre...more instruments tend to be involved in the operations.Therefore, we actually simulated in three dimensions, in a virtual environment, how they were going to use their equipment...we were able to position the components within the operating theatre more accurately, so that the efficiency of the operations could be greater than within a typical, general purpose operating theatre.’.
The high ceilings in the theatres are mentioned by Maswiken, as being a particularly excellent feature of the building, with respect to the way they aid with the use and management of equipment.‘You can actually leave the key equipment in those theatres, rather than moving that equipment up and down all the time,’ he says, before reflecting that actually, because the theatres benefit from ‘integrated systems,’ everything is already mounted and can just be moved around, which he refers to as, ‘yet another advantage.’.
Johnston elaborates, commenting on the high level of integration between the structural, MEP, architectural finishes, electrical, data etc… All of this, he says, allowed Bryden Wood ‘to create a high level of prefabricated MEP (building in ease of maintenance and replacement) interfacing with a highly systemised superstructure.’.
In addition to these advantages, Maswiken enthuses about how lucky they are at Circle Reading to have their core/prep rooms, as well as the benefit of a layout which enables patients to go out through recovery to the wards, rather than back through the theatres.. Goel also comments on layout efficiency saying, ‘The recovery, the day case ward...is very close by.. Further to this, he and Maswiken have many other positive elements to highlight about the Circle theatres.This impacts both the small scale developer who finds it too costly to engage with the planning process; and the domestic developer who may require a number of expensive professional consultants to extend their kitchen.. Challenges/blockers/barriers to a digital planning process.
Clearly, there are technological challenges to a project such as this, but they are far from insurmountable.As with all change, the principle barriers will be the cultural shift required..
However, because we are not seeking to apply a single solution to the entire process, we will not be seeking to change the entire process at the same time.Once the core parameters and rules are in place and the environment is enabled, the overall project can advance incrementally, demonstrating benefits and value as it goes.. As with many instances of progress, there may be vested interests that might object to aspects of this project from a position of self-interest.
(Editor: Quiet Thermostats)