By: Clay Stafford and Nancy Sopuch
Issue: August/September 2007
How did Kuwait, a small, peaceful country with a per capita crime rate lower
than Japan, substantiate the need for one of the largest forensic science facilities
in the world? You may think that a flagship facility such as the one proposed
for Kuwait is influenced by self-image – especially in a region now famous
for building impressive, large scale structures – but for Kuwait, self-image
is not the motivation. The new Kuwait Criminal Evidence Headquarters (KCE-HQ)
has been shaped and scaled by need, respect for local culture, and a strict
adherence to superior forensic and medical examination protocols.
Kuwait’s General Department of Criminal Evidence is considered one of
the most important and vital resources of the Ministry of Interior not only
for its contributions to criminal prosecution, but also for the development
of fundamental data required for both Government and private sector employment.
Established in 1961, the year of Kuwait’s independence, the Criminal
Evidence Headquarters’ initial mission was death investigation and analysis
of document forgeries. By the mid-1980s, full crime scene investigation and laboratory
support were added. During the Iraqi Invasion of 1990 the KCE-HQ was totally
destroyed but re-established in 1991, currently housed in interim facilities
with minimal laboratory infrastructures. While relocating the KCE-HQ to a state
of the art, innovative facility that supports the criminal justice system is
a primary goal of the Directorate, this new facility also affords the Kuwaiti
government the opportunity to expand the KCE-HQ mission beyond its traditional
role of passive evidence verification into an active, crime prevention organization.
New departments for Cyber Crimes and a National DNA Database Center will better
address challenges arising from population changes due to increased immigration.
The new, comprehensive facility will house the departments of:
The
General Directorate
Criminal Laboratory
Crime Scene
Forensic
Medicine
Forgery and Counterfeit Prevention
Personal Identification
and Automated Fingerprint
Quality Control
Research, Development,
and Training
Service and Support
Department of Utilities
CULTURAL PROGRAM ISSUES
The new KCE-HQ Headquarters is influenced by many factors typical of all international
forensic buildings, but by comparison with U.S. or European facilities, some
aspects are unique based on regional culture.
In the publication Forensic
Laboratories: Handbook for Facility Planning, Design, Construction, and Moving1the
U.S. National Institute of Justice notes that
most modern forensic facilities fall within a range of 700 to 1000gsf per building
occupant. Even though this reference is offered as a ballpark, many U.S. laboratory
administrators believe it to be a reliable benchmark. Paradoxically, even though
the Kuwait facility will be one of the largest in the world, the ratio of square
feet per occupant is just under 319gsf. So what is it that makes the Kuwait
criminal investigation facility so different from a typical U.S. model? For
one, the Kuwait social benefit of full employment. This goal of full employment
obviates the need for laboratory staff and laboratory administrators to manage
extensive paperwork for reporting, accreditation, quality control, or other
nonscientific activities. The higher number of available administrative staff
helps lower the building occupant ratio because administrative and clerical
staff does not need laboratory bench space in addition to an office. Some large-scale
U.S. facilities also achieve efficient occupant ratios usually in the range
of 450-500sf per occupant, but the need for these federal or municipal facilities
is usually substantiated by a large per-capita crime rate. Kuwait’s legal
system differs from the U.S. and possession of both alcohol and firearms are
illegal. These restrictions alone result in a reduced need for some laboratory
space.
In addition to a right to work, Islamic customs impose other requirements.
For example, men and women do not work or rest in the same office environment.
This separation of genders causes redundancies in administrative space. Entry
portals into the laboratories (biovestibules) are also separated by gender
for changing into personal protection equipment. However, a mixing of genders
is allowed in the laboratories and work environment, thereby eliminating the
need for duplicating scientific spaces. By comparison to the typical 8-hour
day in the U.S., the 7-hour work day in Kuwait, along with time for prayers
can effect the time spent in the laboratory. Spaces for prayer and social formalities
incorporated in the KCE-HQ include a Mosque and greeting areas within the Departments.
Regional conflicts also contribute to the program needs – prior events
have driven the need for defensive building spaces. Although protective shelters,
water storage requirements, air filtration equipment, and other emergency necessities
add to the KCE-HQ building area, these necessities provide safe harbor for
the staff from explosive, chemical, biological, and even nuclear events.
TRADITIONAL PROGRAM ISSUES
In spite of location, every forensic facility shares one common function, to
provide laboratory space for the examination of physical evidence using the
scientific principles of biology, chemistry, and physics. To safely and effectively
work, evidence analysts need open, flexible bench space; multiple instrument
types; and building systems that preserve the health and safety of occupants
and the integrity of evidence.
After its destruction in 1990, the KCE-HQ was
reconstituted in a structure that was not originally designed for laboratory
functions and currently does not adequately
support laboratory systems. At the outset of planning activities, KCE-HQ representatives
stated a goal of developing new forensic medicine and criminal laboratory facilities
that incorporate the best of all international design standards. In the U.S.,
forensic laboratory space standards are benchmarked on the National Institute
of Justice publication previously referenced in this article. This publication
provides space guidelines for dedicated analyst bench space, specialty functions,
laboratory services, and offices. Drawing on experience in the application
of NIJ and other international standards, KCE-HQ programmers projected the
building
need by using a planning module or single unit of space that functions like
a building block. Regardless of geographic location, modular planning benefits
the organization and operation of a laboratory facility by establishing a uniform
grid for locating demising walls, columns, windows, and other elements so that
rooms can expand or contract without brick and mortar changes. Offices may
be
a whole module, or a fraction of a module, while laboratories may be made up
of several modules. For the KCE-HQ, the unit module is 3.3m x 3.3m (approximately
117nsf). The total number of modules projected for KCE-HQ laboratory functions
alone is 757 modules or approximately 89,000 net square feet.
When planning
laboratory facilities programmers use specific ratios of net square feet area
to gross area. Net area is measured “paint to paint” or
inside wall to inside wall. This is the space that analysts will occupy. The
gross building area is measured from the building’s exterior walls including
public space, circulation, wall thicknesses, structure, chases, and mechanical/electrical/plumbing
systems. For laboratory buildings, the amount of required mechanical space
is much larger than other institutional buildings because of the need for separate
air handling systems. From a safety perspective, ventilation air supplied to
laboratories is not re-circulated. Designing separate building systems naturally
gives way to a pattern of zoning that makes vertical distribution of separate
air systems easier to implement. Figure 1 is an example of how a simple rectangular
floor plan can be organized into laboratory and office zones.
To translate the
total amount of net building area to a total amount of gross building area
for KCE-HQ without having an actual floor plan, programmers applied
a 58% net to gross ratio – that is to say, 58% of the building is made
up of assigned rooms and the remaining 42% is the space allocated to building
requirements including structure, circulation, and building system functions,
to name a few. The total gross building area projected for the KCE-HQ is 43,710m2or
approximately 470,486gsf for 1475 staff.
STAFFING
At present the KCE-HQ has approximately 800 total staff. The new KCE-HQ facility
is planned to meet the country’s needs for approximately thirty years
to 2035. Because Kuwait citizens have right to work status, the Directorate
was concerned that over-staffing may occur and challenged the planners to
validate staff need. The greatest challenge for right-sizing the building
was to understand how a shorter workday might impact near- and far-term laboratory
staffing.
Requirements for KCE-HQ Administrative services are driven solely
by operational nuances and existing planning standards, but laboratory staff
need is based on a combination of caseload projection and achievable case work
times. In a real-time setting, formulas to project staff need were developed
with input from Department representatives. Using historical caseloads, a 30-year
projection of casework was made based on per capita growth at 2.7% (Figure
2(1)). Casework times were developed by interviewing staff about their typical
workday including delays and other miscellaneous activities including training
(Figure 2(2)). A total facility benchmark for
hourly output was also developed (Figure 2(3)). Using these three factors,
an estimate of 329 staff in the Crime
Laboratories Department was made by dividing the 30-Year Caseload Projection
(Figure 2(1)) by the number of cases one scientist works in a typical year
of 1574 work hours (Figure 2(3)), using the agreed-upon
work time per case. Methods for estimating Department Administrators including
Department Director, Assistant Director, and clerical staff were based on existing
KCE-HQ standards.
THE NEXT CHALLENGE
For KCE-HQ stakeholders, the next issue for exploration is what defines great
forensic facility design? Is it the materials, equipment, engineering systems,
design, or is it a planning concept that blends all of these into a single
facility that absorbs change and gracefully adapts over time? What measures
will be used to judge success or failure? For facilities, such as the new
KCE-HQ that are intended to support and facilitate science for the next twenty-five
to thirty years, questions like these have unique gravity. How do you keep
a science facility viable throughout its planned life? Every client wants
(and needs) to have the confidence that their facility will be able to adapt
to new demands over time and the leadership of KCE-HQ wants to know that
the investment being made today will stand up to scrutiny.
To meet this demand,
the project team has been scanning the horizon and visiting past clients
to best understand where change may occur – what trends,
new technologies, and approaches to forensic science will create the next “tipping-point” for
change. For example, DNA-driven units are growing quickly usually representing
10-20% of a typical crime lab program. Incorporation of equipment such as robotics
may begin to challenge the need for personnel in Kuwait, but experience proves
that if crime laboratories don’t already have robotics, chances are they
will in the future. Even though today KCE-HQ is based on more traditional staffing,
the space and infrastructure must be flexible to accommodate instrument conversions.
The challenge is to understand what flexibility means and where it is genuinely
needed – is it merely adaptability, or maintaining the opportunity for
expansion and contraction? Or, is flexibility growing room to absorb new equipment
or people? The challenge for the designers who will implement the KCE-HQ program
will be how to design a large-scale facility that effectively supports change
without impacting operations and the overall mission of the KCE-HQ. Other challenges
that lie ahead include the integration of technology to easily facilitate the
sharing of information allowing data to be used by scientists from locations
outside the lab, in a nearby office or around the world. The realization of
virtual experimentation and collaboration through software and technology will
continue to impact the design and total building environment.
As planning begins
to transition into design development, the team will continue to be challenged
by the demands of program, protocol, flexibility, and the other shape givers
that define success, but one factor is evident, the new General Department
of Criminal Evidence will continue Kuwait’s tradition of leadership in
the Gulf Region and set a new milestone for crime evidence verification.
References
1. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute
of Justice (Publication NCJ 168106 April 1998).
Clay Stafford is a Senior Laboratory Programmer with HERA, Inc. He has 20
years of experience in facility programming, planning, strategic planning,
and master planning for forensic, government, and academic clients. Clay may
be contacted at clays@herainc.com.
Nancy Sopuch is a Laboratory Programmer
with HERA, Inc. With 15 years of laboratory programming, project feasibility
and campus utilization analysis she has worked for forensic, government,
and academic clients. Nancy may be contacted at nancys@herainc.com.
