The Newways project was developed by Bryden Wood McLeod (BWM) for Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), a multi-national pharmaceutical company, as an innovative way of designing, procuring and constructing the basic elements of a building to cut the construction time of their facilities from 24 months to 13 weeks. The demand for a reduced construction time is generated by the nature and risk involved in the way the pharmaceutical industry operates.   The intent is for the system to encompass the three types of facilities they manage (laboratories, primary and secondary production) through the reconfiguration of system componentry.  The building was designed so that it could be decomposed into a set of assemblies, components, and parts.

The system uses a basic kit-of-parts approach comprising of 900 parts, 90 components, and 30 assemblies.  The formula used on a project basis is a 10/80/10 approach where 80% of the parts would be standard, while 10% would be specific to the given program and 10% to the specific site context.  The off-site manufacturing allows the system to take a product design approach and have many of the elements developed in parallel.  The system incorporates floor cassette units (4m x 12m) which fit the 12m x 12m structural grid, are delivered with attached services (e.g. cable trays, ductwork connections) and uses simple on-site ‘hook & eye’ connections for quick assembly (16 per a day).  The exterior fabric will be delivered as a series of mega panels that interface with the floor cassettes and can be cladded with a variety of systems and sealed with a zip-p gasket.