We can test multiple scenarios and identify risk and opportunity.
The other aspect of the hospital’s sense of spaciousness is, of course, provided by the rooms themselves.Supplies Lead Wendy Bonard-Williams comments that her team are fortunate in this regard.
‘With the actual store rooms themselves,’ she says, ‘they’ve really thought about it.’.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.Our approach will generate a density of information that we can make use of throughout the design and build process (including planning) – and then beyond construction, into the operation of buildings and ultimately their end of life.
Standardised data will vastly improve transparency and efficiency, and open up opportunities for future innovation..Enabling planning as a data-led process will unlock the value of related modern methods of construction, enabling connections with related applications such as the PRiSM app for housing.. Making processes more efficient and transparent will force the hand of the regulatory environment – as we have seen in other sectors, better technology drives the modernisation of regulations.. And, of course, the lessons learned from this project can be applied beyond planning.
This sort of project helps create the environment for people – public and professionals – to engage with digital in the public realm.This will be an exemplar of how applying technology creates a proliferation of benefits.. How to create a digital environment for planning.