SAPS Arcadia Forensic Science Laboratory

A 1950s hospital turned into what was then the world's biggest automated forensic analysis system.

The brief

The old Andrew McColm Hospital, a three-storey 1950s building with wards and operating theatres, had been abandoned because it cost too much to maintain. The police needed it converted into a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory.

The idea

A hospital is made of small rooms; a robotic laboratory needs long spaces full of services. The dividing walls of the wards were removed to create the large laboratories, and service balconies were added so long robotic equipment could be moved in and out.

The entrance moved from the cramped south side of the lower ground floor to the upper ground floor on the north, to meet security requirements. Aluminium cladding now conceals the services that had been run along the outside of the building over the years.

The result

Local artists led by Olwagen and Lizette van Huyssteen made a DNA-themed mural for the entrance foyer in scratch plaster. On completion around 2006, the laboratory was described by Tecan Journal as the "world's biggest, single automated forensic analysis system".