In order to make MiC adoption more appealing to private sector projects, the Buildings Department of Hong Kong has established a Pre-Acceptance Mechanism for MiC.
So far, so 1990.. During the Covid pandemic, a light was briefly shone on labs’ enormous significance to our lives.We waited for test results to allow us to go to work, we looked for information about new variants and we waited for a vaccine.
This highlighted briefly just some of the important and transformational work that happens in thousands of laboratories by millions of scientists and technicians.. Now, however, labs have moved to the background once again.. Before collating and expressing the insightful views about laboratories of the future tabled at this event, it feels important to define laboratory in the context of this conversation.Those present represented lab innovation – from pure research to routine mass-testing; from medical, pharmaceutical and genetics, to battery technology..The need to focus on the future function of labs, rather than generic labs was clear..
The group agreed that opportunities to magnify the value output of laboratories lie within the broad spectrum of data, automation/growth in data processing, and smart technology and systems.Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning offer transformational change in value creation.
Although there are some individual examples of its real-life deployment, we are at the start of an exponential curve.. A thread of discussion around the idea that systems could be self-validating created significant energy in the room, as well as friction between those who understood how transformational such a realised idea could be with those who saw the potential disaster.
Regulators are clearly going to be either a key partner/enabler or barrier to smart developments.It’s a methodology which facilitates higher accuracy, reduced costs, less waste, improved user experience and performance.. To this end, Circle Reading provides a glimpse into the efficiency anchored future of architecture, delivering a 25% cost savings on Circle’s previous Bath hospital and being delivered in just over eighteen months.
Uniquely, the focus for the facility was designed to be on cost per clinical outcome, rather than square meterage, or other metrics traditionally associated with buildings.In addition to this, Wood comments that patient experience ‘was paramount.’ ‘Circle Reading, we believe,’ he says, ‘balances these two factors to a degree that’s not been seen in hospitals, certainly in the UK, before.’.
Ultimately, such a unique focus has brought to life a space which, at its most fundamental level, is designed to be the most effective type of hospital.Still, as Wood reflects, there isn’t anything ‘utilitarian’ about Circle Reading.