Confidential and high-security construction projects are needed in towns and cities, as the bedrock in keeping communities and local people safe.
This could be through the development of police facilities and custody suites, to highly-confidential research laboratories, and defence facilities. These spaces help the UK to keep ahead of the curve of the ever-evolving threats encroaching on both our physical and metaphorical borders. They also provide safe and secure spaces for individuals to rehabilitate and rejoin society.
We have worked on a range of confidential and high-security projects, following the strict rules and guidance required to protect them. These include:
- Providing a defence organisation with specialist training facilities
- Building a secure children's home as part of a new pioneering initiative
- Redeveloping a defence organisation's research facilities
- Creating a new Energetics Analysis Centre for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
Providing a defence organisation with specialist training facilities
We're working with a defence organisation to provide new facilities in the Midlands. The specialist facilities will centre around care and training and will include both refurbishment and new build work to provide a range of areas, including a gymnasium, training areas, office spaces, and other centres.
Building a secure children's home as part of a new pioneering initiative
A new programme will see children's homes across country being replaced. We're currently working closely with a customer who is delivering a secure children's home, created for those aged 14-18.
The new home will help to meet national and local demand for additional spaces for children's criminal justice and welfare placements.
As the flagship project for this initiative, it has been incredibly important that we have worked closely with the customer from RIBA Stage 1. This has enabled us to share our expertise and really drill down into design requirements to ensure everything is considered.
The location of this project has made our involvement from early doors particularly important. The chosen location meets all of the critical requirements for a building of this nature, but is posing some unusual challenges that can only be overcome through early engagement.
The home will also need to meet a multitude of requirements as secure children's homes often house vulnerable children or children with complex needs. Facilities will include 'independent' flats to aid rehabilitation back into society, educational and medical areas, sports and recreational spaces, and secure outdoor courtyard areas.
Although this is a children's home, the nature of it means that security measures are paramount, and have been considered throughout.
Sustainability is also an important factor, with solutions put in place to minimise energy usage, produce renewable energy onsite and make the building net-zero in operation. The project is also ahead of the curve, providing a 10% biodiversity net gain ahead of the legislation coming into effect from November 2023.
Redeveloping a defence organisation's research facilities
This major redevelopment consisted of five new, highly specialist counter-terrorism facilities. Once complete, they received an “excellent” rating in their equivalent of BREEAM.
Some of the features of this project included five specialist clean rooms designed to ISO 7 standard and specialist process engineering facilities.
All of this was delivered on a live science and research campus that was highly confidential, with our teams and supply chain partners needing to complete high levels of security clearance.
Creating a new Energetics Analysis Centre for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
We delivered a £30m Energetics Analysis Centre (EAC) for the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
The state-of-the-art facility will be used to conduct world-class research and analysis across Government, including the Ministry of Defence, Home Office, Department for Transport, and other agencies. It will help to give the UK military and security an advantage by providing a defence against the use of energetic or explosive materials and protecting the UK against terrorist and criminal threats.
The complex nature of the facility means that early engagement and collaboration between all parties played a key role in the delivery of the project. This approach enabled all parties to undertake value management and cloud-based BIM, as well as using contract management software to improve design efficiency.
For more information, contact our local expert