Australia has the skills and intelligence to lead the fast -emerging new world of life sciences, health and technology sectors, globally. The struggle though, is getting our hands on the sophisticated technology, equipment and robotics needed for the fitouts of these specialised facilities. Costs are rising – and we’re talking sometimes tens of millions of dollars.
Who was it that said real estate is the centre of the universe? They might have said it was our future made manifest because when investors plonk down big wads of cash to build something, it’s usually on the back of strong indicators that this will be a winner.
Right now, interest in commercial real estate is waning but for medical sciences, education and tech it’s surging.
Property developers and investors such as Wentworth Capital and Vita Partners have seen the potential in life sciences and they’re in.
AI is absolutely in the ascendant, says Graeme Spencer, principal education and science at HDR, an architectural and engineering firm with 14,000 staff globally and around 250 in Australia.
His job is to oversee a raft of work that’s fuelled by AI but also enormous leaps in other technology and medical science that sails very close to the futuristic imaginings we might have had just a few years ago.
Data centres and defence contracts are big business and that’s an exciting space to be part of, he says.
But as the industry is constantly reminded, it comes with the scramble to cut soaring energy costs and make these giant installations more palatable on the environmental and urban landscape.
In Spencer’s world, even more exciting is the rise of the life sciences, a sector that, just a few years ago, was barely understood as a concept. It’s about science, medicine and education, often melded into a single precinct or ecosystem.
In this, he says, Australia is often leading the world. The innovation potential is huge.
These complex, deeply integrated facilities can save lives, he says.
They can 3D scan and print a replacement hip or quickly diagnose diseases by automating analysis of 10,000 cells previously done by hand.
They use an ultra-rapid treatment approach that mirrors viral spread to combat specific diseases, achieving in weeks what once took years and millions of dollars.
The fitout and cost are major barrier
But there’s a problem. Not in designing the best possible facilities for the work that goes on there but in sourcing the fitouts needed – from high tech equipment to robotics and other advanced technology.
The thing is that Australia is competing globally for the same technology, sourced mainly from Germany, Italy and France, and demand is rising, so prices are blowing out, sometimes by 50 per cent.
“We’re potentially talking tens of millions of dollars”, Spencer says.
The mechanical systems alone can blow any regular budget, if they need to operate in a high-level containment facility. The sophisticated mechanical and HEPA filters can cost $10,000 a square metre in fitout, which in regular labs might pay for the entire build.
Even with strong budgets to pay the asking prices, there’s a queue, and even governments struggle to elbow their way to the top of the list.
Delays are common.
But worth it.
A tough but worthwhile frontier
The technologies in such hot demand are a glimpse into the rapidly approaching future of medicine in Australia.
Think personalised medical solutions based on a vial of your own DNA. For a start.
In Sydney, Spencer and his team is currently leading the delivery of a $680 million biomedical accelerator that will literally link the University of Sydney and the Local Area Health District through the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, with bridges.
“Then the surgeons walk across the bridge into the Sydney Biomedical Accelerator, go to the biomedical engineering group, and they will 3D scan and print the hip.”
He sets the scene of what may be possible in the future.
Imagine you’re on a farm and the tractor rolls over and crushes your hip. You go to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where they will digitally scan your other hip, he says.
“Then the surgeons walk across the bridge into the Sydney Biomedical Accelerator, go to the biomedical engineering group, and they will 3D scan and print the hip.”
They will figure out which screws need to go where and offer you a menu of materials for your new hip: titanium or ceramic? The hip will then be coated in your own DNA to lessen the likelihood of your body rejecting the new part.
To do so, the hospital will refer to a vial of your own personal DNA fluid that will personalise your treatment and any drugs you need.
The facility will also be a sophisticated research centre and have capacity for “high end containment” for things like tuberculosis and “virus x” (whatever pandemic is next in line).
It will be a honeypot where “great minds to come together”, Spencer says.
But there’s more. At Westmead Health Precinct, he’s working on a viral vector facility that mimics viruses to carry personalised treatment for diseases such as cancer, that can save millions of dollars.
The facility will also serve the Australian and South-East Asian region.
At Geelong, about one hour west of Melbourne, there’s expansion of CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness under way. The facility focuses on high-risk pathogens, including agricultural and zoonotic diseases – those that can jump from animals to humans, such as COVID-19 “It’s a highly specialised facility – one of only six globally recognised by the World Health Organisation,” Spencer says.
Currently, the researchers work behind layers of concrete, but
the new design will change that, opening the new extension to the (very attractive) Geelong foreshore. “They will have views, natural daylight, and a workspace that supports wellbeing – even within a high-containment environment.”
But in creating the new labs, the designers needed the scientists’ buy in. To help them visualise the new space they brought in Melbourne firm Big Plans to help. The company not only projects plans onto a wall and floor but also builds prototypes of the fitout, allowing prospective researchers to walk through and get a realistic sense of the spaces that will be delivered.
Data centres are challenging
HDR is also managing surging demand for data centres. By comparison you might think this sector less complex than that of life sciences, with the biggest challenge how to keep operational costs low – primarily energy, which largely comes down to cooling.
There’re innovations such as blackwater harvesting for cooling and specialised liquids into which data racks can be submerged and cooled.
But with the rise in AI is adding a new level of intensity to these challenges and likewise, a new set of creative solutions.
For cooling there’s blackwater harvesting specialised liquids into which data racks can be submerged. Some centres are built underground to take advantage of more stable and lower temperatures.
There’s also a phenomenon known as “dark cities”, so named for the vast facilities, bereft of humans but replete with equipment and robots that need neither cool comfortable temperatures nor light.
But that’s not the extent of the challenge. There’s also a need improve on the prospect of blank 200 metre long, five-storey-high walls that house the tech.
Architects need to make these centres look good. Cross laminated timber is in popular demand, so too greenery, pocket parks and other architectural aesthetics. Some are winning designs awards.
Architecture represents 25 per cent of a data centre design; 75 per cent is engineering, Spencer says.
“It’s like having an incredibly, complex machine, and the architecture’s job is to wrap it as effectively as possible but to do so in a way which considers the broader urban fabric and community.”
Data driven designs are beloved of clients
To get the best outcome across all the sectors the company increasingly uses visualisation technology it calls “living masterplan dashboards” to understand movement and the optimisation of space.
“We take a data-driven design approach, leveraging technologies like genetic algorithms to assess movement flows and maximise efficiencies.”
Clients love them, Spencer says. “They’re like a digital twin, but even more dynamic and responsive.
In universities, Opal Card movements and Wi-Fi detectors reveal activity around campuses. It’s a way to gain deeper insights and make informed decisions.
In a hospital, the technology can map nurse movements between patients, operating theatres and recovery wards.
In universities, Opal Card movements and Wi-Fi detectors reveal activity around campuses. It’s a way to gain deeper insights and make informed decisions.
There’s “amazing conversations we can have around the table…It becomes a chance to ask: ‘How do we create a new engineering precinct, unite these groups, and strengthen collaboration?’”
Instead of relying on opinion, “we get to use the data to provide much more informed, enriched conversation around decision making and future planning.”
Decision makers can assess who’s in a building, when and how often.
It can mean the difference between a $50 million demolition or a $5 million refurbishment.
Among the company’s clients are the University of New South Wales, the University of Technology Sydney, Western Sydney University, Macquarie University, with emerging opportunities in Melbourne.
The team
All up there’s a team of about 40 life science architects and 50 in data centres, led by Sam Faigen, national director of technology, media and telecom.
That’s already a good indication of the interest in this sector, one we’ll be watching with much interest as it evolves.
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