GHD has been engaged by Qatar Shell to undertake the design and supervision consultancy services for the existing non-process facilities in their Pearl GTL (PGTL) plant within Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC) located to the north of Doha.
The project, which is Phase 1 of Qatar Shell's wider development programm consists of the renovation of three existing office buildings, namely the Plant Office Building (POB), Central Control Room (CCR) and the Warehouse and Workshop. As part of Qatar Shell's masterplan, the intent is to offer a longer-term solution through renovation of the existing facilities to address the following:
- Improve collaboration
- Improve office support space needs
- Increase utilisation through desk sharing and optimisation of the floor plan
- Improve perception with external stakeholders.
To realise the design intent, GHD held a series of design workshops to discuss end-user requirements. Weekly meetings, site visits and concept presentations were also carried out to better understand the operation, how people function in the existing site and pinpoint the client’s likes and dislikes. Desks with low or no partitions between them were designed so as to promote collaboration. GHD also used VR to enable the client to immerse themselves and 'walk through' the designed spaces, and make comments.