PROJECT INFORMATION
Contract Value: Withheld – available on request
Building Area: 25 282 m2
Site Handover: May 2014
Year Completed: 2017
Project Team: Gavin Schönknecht, John Harvey, Nicole Marillier and Steve Knott
Aspen Pharmacare, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the southern hemisphere, increased its Groups Small Volume Parenteral (SVP) manufacturing capabilities with the construction of a new 25 000 m2 sterile manufacturing facility on its Port Elizabeth site.
The new strategic facility is aimed at the injectables market, and is set to become the largest recovery contributor for finished dosage form operations in South Africa.
BRIEF
High levels of integrated sterility assurance, flow efficiency of operators and materials, integration of automated manufacturing technologies, complex services integration and large throughput volumes were required, all to be contained within a positive atmospheric pressure environment.
The facility required exceptional flexibility in terms of a built container for the manufacturing technologies to be employed. Further, it required the employment and adoption of materials, components and construction technologies readily available within the South African market, in order to support the client’s brief.
SITE CONTENT
The site, located along the south-western edge of the recently expanded Aspen campus, presented challenges that consequently influenced the built form. Restrictions included:
- Retention of the existing warehouse to the north-eastern site edge
- Retention of existing mechanical services to the south-eastern site edge
- Completion of the high-containment production facility to the south-eastern site edge
- Creating new linkages to the existing campus for waste transfer, access to the wastewater treatment plant, API/IPI delivery, finished goods dispatch and pedestrian routes, while consistently maintaining determined levels of segregation
SOLUTION
The client’s brief evolved through the construction period to include an additional four levels. This addition, coupled with site challenges and specialised production requirements, resulted in a horizontal separation between manufacturing and dispensary, inspection, work in progress (WIP) storage and packing processes, service zones located adjacent to and above the production areas, perpendicular waste removal flow to envelope extremities, material receiving/finished goods located at opposite ends of the building relative to personnel access and extensive services platforms suspended from the overhead structure to minimise column impact. Specific detailing to ensure a positive pressure regime, relative to atmosphere, was also developed and segregation within each suite to ensure multiple product manufacture was guaranteed. Due to the overall scale of the facility within the restricted environment, various components and materials were expressed and articulated to mitigate their impact. These included:
- Over-scaling and simplification of various building components
- Projection of components beyond the building envelope, which in turn maximised available internal floor area, while enabling façade articulation coupled with the use of texture and a limited colour palette
- Cladding and fenestration arrangements allowed varying visual dynamics and, where possible, providing visual relief to operators and natural lighting into building core
- The expression of various services, service bridges and fresh air/extraction louvers and loading platforms at various points along the facade.
- Precast concrete technology was employed to achieve clear uninterrupted spans in excess of 23 m to accommodate the additional four production levels. This was done after construction had commenced.
- Further initiatives employed include energy savings realised through the recovery of heat rejection for wash-in-place process cleaning, heat recovery coils for pre-heating/cooling of HVAC air supply and heating of domestic water supply. Phoenix valve technology employed for the HVAC system meant an efficient and adaptable system. High levels of thermal insulation, double glazing, motion sensor technologies and T5 & LED luminaires were also introduced.
The above enabled the facility to commence validation processes.
Trial batches and GMP audits from both international and local independent auditors are due to follow.
