Industrial insulated panel quarantine facility shop drawings, Mount Albert, Auckland

Bondor engaged Marsco Architecture to produce insulated panel shop drawings for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Interim Post Entry Quarantine (IPEQ) facility at the Plant and Food Research site in Mount Albert, Auckland. MPI needed a specialist biocontainment facility to replace an outdated quarantine setup and support horticultural post-entry quarantine work while a larger permanent facility is planned. Marsco's role was limited to panel shop drawings for Bondor's installation team: we did not design the building, coordinate the wider consultant team, or hold the building consent applicant role.

The facility combines a compact head house, approximately 11 m by 16 m excluding the greenhouse pods, with laboratory areas, equipment rooms, back-of-house spaces and office accommodation, plus twelve greenhouses arranged in pairs with a shared corridor linked back to the head house. Containment and non-containment zones within the laboratory block connect to the greenhouse corridor through an anteroom and airlock. The building is technically demanding because of its biocontainment rating: L3B performance, negative pressure operation and strict separation between controlled spaces. Insulated metal panels formed the thermal and hygienic envelope across laboratories, equipment rooms, cool rooms, potting rooms and the tissue culture room, applied to internal partitions, external walls and ceilings throughout those spaces.

Bondor required construction-ready documentation that reflected the actual panel system, junctions and build sequence on a complex, highly serviced building. Marsco was brought in late in the programme when shop drawings had slipped through a coordination misunderstanding, a situation that happens often on fast-track projects and is nobody's fault, but it left construction at risk of delay. The initial brief was to complete the entire shop drawing set within ten working days. Standard design-stage panel layouts were not enough for the non-standard conditions on this job.

The panel specification centred on Bondor XFLAM in 100 mm and 150 mm thicknesses, selected to suit the thermal, hygiene and durability demands of laboratory, cool room and plant support spaces. Marsco's shop drawings translated the design intent into panel-by-panel layouts that installers could build from, with every sheet location labelled for clarity on a large, multi-zone envelope.

A key decision was how to document non-standard flush in-wall panels with integrated ducting. These panels carry services within the wall build-up rather than treating ducts as a separate trade layer applied after panel erection. The shop drawing set defined panel types, cut-outs, service penetrations and junction details so Bondor could prefabricate and install without rework at critical containment interfaces.

Buildability sequencing was resolved around internal and external structural columns that intersect the panel line. Rather than showing panels as continuous planes, the drawings mapped erection order: which panels land first, where columns force stepped junctions, and how adjacent panel runs meet at corridor and airlock transitions. Exploded three-dimensional axonometric details were included so installers could read how layers, flashings and structural elements relate before panels went up.

The insulated envelope terminated at a seismic joint before connecting to the adjacent existing building. Shop drawings made that termination explicit: panel ends, joint clearance, and the handover line between new insulated construction and the adjoining structure were drawn so site teams did not carry the panel line past the designed separation point.

Bondor XFLAM insulated metal panels formed the primary envelope material at 100 mm and 150 mm thicknesses. Panels were used on internal walls between laboratory and support spaces, on external walls where the head house and serviced zones meet the outside, and on ceilings throughout the panel-lined rooms. This gave a continuous insulated surface suited to temperature-controlled cool rooms, controlled laboratory environments and wash-down areas.

Standard flat panel runs alternated with custom flush in-wall panel types where ductwork runs inside the panel cavity. Those assemblies required coordinated detailing between panel faces, internal steel structure, duct routes and penetration seals. The shop drawing set identified each panel type by reference so the factory and site teams could match the correct profile to each grid location.

Junctions at the greenhouse corridor, anteroom and airlock interfaces needed careful treatment because containment performance depends on continuous pressure control between spaces. Panel end details, door frame interfaces and ceiling-to-wall transitions were drawn at a scale installers could use on site, not left as generic supplier standard details.

Biocontainment facilities operate under strict containment standards, with the wider project designed to L3B requirements including negative pressure operation across greenhouse and laboratory zones. Marsco's shop drawings had to support that performance without ambiguity: any gap in panel continuity, an unsealed penetration or a mis-sequenced install could compromise the envelope Bondor was responsible for building. Precision in layout and labelling mattered more than on a typical warehouse panel job.

Integrated ducting within flush wall panels is uncommon on standard industrial panel projects. Documenting those panels required exploded axonometric views that show how the panel skin, insulation core, duct space and structural backing relate in three dimensions. Flat elevations alone would not have given installers enough information to set out complex panels correctly the first time.

Structural columns inside and outside the panel line created a three-dimensional coordination problem. Panels had to step around steel, maintain seal continuity, and still follow a logical erection sequence that kept the head house and greenhouse corridor weathertight as work progressed. The shop drawing package mapped that sequence explicitly rather than leaving it to site interpretation.

Marsco joined late as a shop drawing specialist engaged by Bondor, not as the lead designer. The original ten-day turnaround required reprioritising other work without affecting existing client commitments, while keeping this job at the front of the queue even as the programme shifted with ongoing design changes elsewhere on the project. That meant working from established design information, resolving panel-specific buildability issues within Bondor's scope, and producing documentation clear enough for factory production and on-site installation under programme pressure.

Shop drawings exist to catch clashes before panels reach site. On this project, coordination between panel faces, integrated duct routes, structural columns and containment junctions had to be resolved in the drawing set, not left for the install team to solve on the hoist.

The MPI IPEQ facility reached completion in February 2024. Marsco delivered a full insulated panel shop drawing package that supported Bondor's installation across the head house laboratory and support spaces, giving labelled panel layouts, type schedules, junction details and exploded axonometric views for the most complex conditions. Once the set was issued for construction, Bondor returned zero requests for information: clashes between panels, structure and services had been resolved in the drawings before build.

The project demonstrates where standalone shop drawing work adds value on high-consequence buildings: when panel layouts involve non-standard flush assemblies, integrated services, structural obstructions and containment-sensitive junctions, generic design-stage panel notes are rarely enough for a clean install. Detailed shop drawings bridge that gap between design intent and what actually gets bolted together on site.

For similar insulated panel shop drawing work on commercial, industrial or specialist facilities anywhere in New Zealand, see our shop drawings and industrial insulated panel design services. Marsco works directly with panel installers and project teams when buildability documentation needs to be right before panels arrive on site.