Pragmatic approach to project delivery sees designer celebrate seven years at T-SQUARED

CAD designer Martin Wallace is celebrating seven years at T-SQUARED by playing an important role in the design team that delivered the UK Government’s second vaccine testing facility at Porton Down, along with his involvement in a number of other important facilities.

Martin graduated from the University of West of Scotland in Paisley in 2016 where he secured a BSc in Computer Aided Design. He began working at T-SQUARED in 2015, completing his third-year studies while working in tandem at the company that designs, builds and maintains highly specialised facilities for high-tech and highly regulated industries.

Martin takes an active role in BIM coordination meetings, site surveys and giving general support to T-SQUARED’s design and on-site project teams. Working on new builds and the refurbishment of cleanrooms, laboratories and a range of containment level environments for specialist organisations across the UK, Martin creates services instalment plans to ensure services such as electrical wiring systems, gas pipework and ventilation ductwork is all installed accurately on-site to the highest standards and in line with the latest legal regulations.

T-SQUARED’s unique end-to-end turnkey service enables their team of specialists to create spaces where scientists and innovators do amazing things, from preventing the next global pandemic to cutting-edge research at the speed of light.

During his time at T-SQUARED Martin has been part of the design team for many of the company’s most important projects, including the Large Volume Liquids facility at Inchinnan, the Pharmaceutical Specialist Services facility at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital, Diamond Light Source at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus and most recently the UK Government’s vaccine testing facilities (VTF-A and VTF-B) at Porton Down.

“Being part of the team to deliver projects like VTF-B is extremely satisfying, it’s exciting to see projects like that rising up out of the ground and knowing you have played a part in that,” said Martin.

“The design process here at T-SQUARED is very efficient. We don’t get involved in endless meetings that can slow down progress and we don’t get embroiled in red tape. If something needs doing to move a project forward, we get it done. Obviously, there are regulations and legal standards that we always adhere to, but we don’t let those regulations dictate or slow down delivering complex and often time sensitive projects.”

During his time at T-SQUARED Martin has further developed his design skills on software packages such as Autodesk Revit and Navisworks and an important part of his role sees him responsibile for managing software updates to the Revit system, ensuring all updates and changes are introduced into the design team smoothly. He is also responsible for feeding back to Autodesk on how their software is performing for T-SQUARED and highlighting areas for further development or improvement.

Martin added: “I joined the company directly from university, so the
T-SQUARED way of doing things is the only way I have ever known. While we work on highly specialised highly regulated facilities, we take a no-nonsense, pragmatic approach, regardless of challenges put in our way. Everybody at
T-SQUARED knows what they have to do as a team to get projects over the line and if something needs to happen to make a project successful, then we make sure it happens.”