A laboratory for Intertek, from feasibility to design and construct.

More than 1,305 square metres of testing laboratory, office and warehouse in Sydney’s southern industrial precinct. JCGAU ran the feasibility, then took the design and construct commission that followed it.

Client
Intertek Testing Services
Location
Botany, NSW
Delivery
Feasibility, then design and construct
Status
In progress
Sector
Labs & Research Facilities
  • Intertek Sydney Laboratory, Botany NSW, during construction with JCGAU site hoarding and the estate loading zone kept clear
  • Intertek Sydney laboratory exterior facade and signage, Botany NSW, indicative design render
    Exterior · Indicative design render
  • Intertek Sydney laboratory reception with feature joinery desk, indicative design render
    Reception · Indicative design render
  • Intertek Sydney laboratory reception facing the entry, indicative design render
    Reception facing entry · Indicative design render
  • Ground floor office overlooking the laboratory, indicative design render
    Ground floor office · a commercial fitout inside a technical facility · Indicative design render
  • Laboratory corridor with emergency safety shower and eyewash station, indicative design render
    Corridor with emergency shower and eyewash · Indicative design render
  • Laboratory loading bay with hatched line marking and bollards, Intertek Sydney laboratory, indicative design render
    Loading bay · Indicative design render
Laboratory, office and warehouse
1,305 m²
Trade packages, openly tendered
20
Value managed against the pre-tender estimate on this project
11%
Design and construct, held by JCGAU
D&C

The commission

The client tested us before they committed.

Intertek engaged JCGAU to run the feasibility. When the study answered their questions, the same client awarded the build.

That order matters more than the floor area. A feasibility costs a client very little and tells them a great deal: whether the builder understands the operation, whether the tenancy can actually carry what the business needs, and whether the numbers hold. Intertek ran that test and then handed us the construction contract.

The laboratory is a Class 8 and Class 5 building under a complying development pathway with an appointed principal certifier, which is the ordinary route for this work in New South Wales.

How the Intertek Sydney commission was won and delivered. The client engaged JCGAU for a feasibility, which tested whether the builder understood the problem. The feasibility was accepted, and the same client then awarded the design and construct commission for the build. The route from a low-risk study to a construction contract is the point of the diagram.

How the work was won

  1. 1

    Feasibility

    A low-risk way for the client to find out whether we understood the brief.

  2. 2

    Design brief

    Written from the client’s own account of how the laboratory has to operate.

  3. 3

    Design and construct

    The same client awarded the build to the firm that ran the study.

Why this sequence is the evidence: a tender win says a number was competitive. A feasibility converted into a construction commission says the client read our work first and then decided. That is a harder test and a better reference.

A tender win tells a client a number was competitive. A feasibility that converts into a construction commission tells them the client read the work first.

The building

What was designed and what is being built.

Intertek Sydney laboratory exterior facade and signage, Botany NSW, indicative design render
The building from the estate roadway. Dark facade, glazed office return, the client mark at the corner.
Intertek Sydney laboratory reception with feature joinery desk, indicative design render
Reception. The first thing a visiting client of Intertek sees, and the reason the finish tolerance here is tighter than anywhere else on the job.
Main testing laboratory with benching and services reticulation, Intertek Sydney laboratory, indicative design render
The testing floor. Benching, services reticulation and the column grid resolved together rather than in sequence.
Laboratory corridor with emergency safety shower and eyewash station, indicative design render
Extraction and services above the benches. The ceiling zone here is the constraint that decides the whole room.
Laboratory loading bay with hatched line marking and bollards, Intertek Sydney laboratory, indicative design render
Warehouse and goods handling. Line marking, chevrons and bollards set out from how the operation actually moves, not from a standard detail.
Ground floor office overlooking the laboratory, indicative design render
Office and meeting space. A commercial fitout sitting inside a technical facility, with the interface between them coordinated by one contractor.

The first question

Maximum electrical demand, answered before anything else.

The most expensive thing to discover after a lease is executed is that the tenancy cannot power the business that is moving into it.

A testing laboratory is an electrically dense operation. Ovens, chillers, compressors, fume cabinets and instrumentation add to a maximum demand that has nothing in common with an office of the same floor area. On this project we established that demand from the client’s own equipment schedule, then established in writing what the tenancy and the wider complex could actually supply.

Where the two do not meet, there are only two answers and both cost money and time: draw on spare capacity elsewhere in the complex, or apply to the network distributor for an augmentation. Either way the client needs the number before they sign a lease, not after the design is drawn.

Maximum electrical demand as the first question on a laboratory fitout. Establish the demand the operation actually needs, then establish what the tenancy and the wider complex can supply. If supply meets demand the fitout proceeds. If it does not, the options are an upgrade within the complex where spare capacity exists, or a supply augmentation through the network distributor, and both carry a cost and a lead time that must be known before the lease or the design is committed.

  1. Demand the operation needs

    Every instrument, oven, fume cabinet, chiller and compressor, listed by the client.

  2. Supply the tenancy has

    Confirmed in writing from the board, the riser and the complex, not assumed.

  3. Does supply meet demand?

  • yes

    Fitout proceeds on the design

  • no

    Price the upgrade before the lease is signed

    Spare capacity in the complex, or an augmentation through the distributor

On the Sydney laboratory this was the first question we asked and the first one we answered. It is cheap to ask at feasibility and it is the most expensive thing on the job to discover after a lease is executed.

The sequence we run on every technical fitout. It is a fortnight of work at feasibility and it protects the entire project behind it.

The client understands their business. Our job is to turn that understanding into a design brief that can be built.

Laboratory loading bay with hatched line marking and bollards, Intertek Sydney laboratory, indicative design render

The brief

Written from the operator’s knowledge, not from a template.

Intertek know precisely what their day-to-day operation requires, because they run it. The value we add is not telling a client what they need. It is converting what they already know into a design brief that is specific enough to build to and to test at handover.

  • Equipment first

    Every item scheduled with its power, water, gas, extraction and clearance requirement, taken from the client rather than assumed.

  • Demand established

    Maximum demand calculated against the schedule and reconciled with the supply the tenancy actually has.

  • Adjacency resolved

    Which rooms have to sit next to which, and which must not, decided by the workflow and the sample path.

  • Tested at handover

    Each brief item carries the evidence that closes it out, so acceptance is a check rather than an opinion.

Procurement

Twenty packages, openly tendered, fully traceable.

What we didWhyWhat it produced
Divided the scope into twenty trade packagesSmaller packages attract more bidders and expose the price of each element rather than burying it in a lump sum.A contestable field on every package.
Advertised through EstimateOneAn open market rather than a closed panel, so the client can see the field.Visible tender coverage and pricing that can be interrogated.
Value managed against the pre-tender estimateOptions priced and put to the client with the consequence of each stated.An eleven per cent saving on this project. A strong result, and a project result rather than a standing rate.
Kept every award traceable to its quotationA saving that cannot be audited is a claim.A trail the client’s quantity surveyor can follow end to end.

The eleven per cent is specific to this project and this scope. Value management outcomes vary widely, and a builder who advertises a percentage as though it were a method is describing luck rather than a process.

Credits

Who else is on this project.

Head contractor
JCGAU, design and construct
Client
Intertek Testing Australia
Architect
Appointed by JCGAU under the design and construct contract
Structural
Appointed by JCGAU under the design and construct contract
Building services
Appointed by JCGAU under the design and construct contract
Risk engineering
Dangerous goods separation, ventilation and fire ratings
Building surveyor
Appointed under the New South Wales certification path

Each consultant on this project was engaged by JCGAU under the design and construct contract, which is what makes the single point of accountability real rather than nominal. Firm names and referee contacts are provided on request for a live opportunity.

More projects

Prior firm: the director’s contribution at a previous firm, not JCGAU-delivered work.

Services on this project

  1. Design & Construction

    One point of accountability. The design and the price move together. Design and construct, and novated design and construct, for commercial projects.

  2. Industrial Fitout & Refurbishment

    Office, amenities and plant inside an operating facility. Re-racking, dock upgrades, cold storage, plant rooms and services replacement.

The sector

  1. Labs & Research Facilities

Where to go next

  1. Laboratories and research facilities

    Containment, ventilation and equipment loads, where the services are the project.

  2. Sydney and New South Wales

    Commercial and industrial delivery under the practitioner regime.

  3. Design and construct

    One contract carrying both the design and the price.

  4. Industrial construction

    Warehouses, distribution and production facilities, and the fitout inside them.

Questions

Can we speak to Intertek about it?

Yes. They have consented to being named and can be approached as a referee. Ask us and we will make the introduction.

Is the eleven per cent something we should expect?

No, and we would rather say so. It is what this scope returned on this project against this estimate. What transfers to your project is the method behind it: open tendering, twenty packages rather than four, and a trail your quantity surveyor can audit.

Do you only do laboratories?

No. This facility is a laboratory, a warehouse and an office under one contract, which is a fair description of most of the work we take.

Who ran the design?

Under design and construct we hold the consultants. The architect, structural, building services, risk and certification team are credited above and were coordinated by us.

When will there be completed photography?

When the facility is finished. Until then the page uses issued-for-construction perspectives and says that plainly, because a render presented as a photograph is the fastest way to lose a procurement panel.

Ask us about this project.

It is the clearest answer we can give to what JCGAU does, and the client has agreed to be named. A conversation about it will tell you more than a capability statement.

Tell us about your projectCall 1300 909 938