Over the last 25 years, BAW Architecture has had a front-row seat into hundreds of leading oil & gas, chemical, utility, mining and transportation companies embarking on a new or renovated control room.   Recently, pressure to compress budgets and schedules, and the lack of properly trained control building architectural and design resources, are causing companies to take shortcuts in the design process that increases operational risk and cost in the long term.

A poorly designed control building increases risk in a very direct way. If an operator cannot hear alarms properly, does not have the appropriate line of sight to video screens, is distracted or fatigued and not at full mental alertness, errors will occur. Sometimes systems and humans can correct for these errors, but we know all too well with the number of catastrophic incidents across industries many of these errors escalate into costly and sometimes deadly incidents. The incidents not only take human life, but can cause millions if not billions of dollars in damage to facilities and the environment.

The good news, however, is that there is an international awareness of safety in control room design spreading across the globe, in large part due to control room standards originally published in the year 2000 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In particular, ISO 11064 spells out in detail the standards for ergonomics in the design of control centers, and the layout and dimensions of workstations to achieve maximum efficiency and safety. Adherence to these best-practice guidelines is strongly recommended in all industries where control rooms are present. Indeed, compliance with ISO 11064 standards can act in a company’s defense and mitigate legal liability in the event of an accident, incident or personal injury case. With safety and efficiency as the drivers, facility siting and the design of a building from the operator-out, good control room design can be measured against the mandates of ISO 11064. The result is a building that offers return on investment for the owner that has maximized efficiency and minimized abnormal events.

Unfortunately, many control rooms have been built without adherence to ISO 11064 guidelines, and operators and owners have suffered the consequences. Examples include:

• A control room that is overcrowded for people and equipment with no room for future expansion.
• Control rooms with poor lighting, leading to fatigue, eye strain, and medical issues that result in higher rates of absenteeism.
• Control rooms with too many reflective surfaces, too much glare, and poor lighting, such that operators prefer to work in the dark.
• Control buildings that are not adequately separated and secure from other building spaces and functions, leading to operator distractions and noise issues.

Alone, each of these observations do not mean the operational company will have an incident or failure relating to their control room operators, but what each of these observations do tell us, is that the risk of the operator losing situational awareness while doing his or her job is higher. It is higher because instead of designing the control room with an integrated process that verifies the operator requirements, workflow, interactions between people, and human-machine interface considerations, no human-factors related process was followed, and thus no input from the operator was considered in the design.

We understand the desire to save time and money at every stage of a project. But the actual cost of properly designing a control room at the beginning of the process is often a small fraction, akin to a rounding error in the cost of the entire project. If we then add in the potential higher risk and cost of fixing a problem after the design is done, we are making a poor situation worse. The challenge for all operating companies, large or small, is how best to make sure their control building is designed properly, to avoid the pitfalls described above.

Begin at the Beginning

In an ideal world, engineering firms would invite an experienced control building architect and design firm to the table in the planning stages of a new operations facility or a control room renovation, long before the building location or size is determined, and the consoles selected. An experienced control building architect and designer can provide a clear process to identify pre-design activities that will prepare companies to ask the right questions early in the process. Auditing existing facilities to understand current strengths and weaknesses, and to prioritize the most critical aspects of the project, is a step that, when skipped, can have detrimental impact on the vision of the new control facility.

Good Control Room Design Begins with Safety

The first critical step is facility siting—hiring an experienced control room architect can assist with planning the best location of the building in proximity to the necessary infrastructure as appropriate. Will it be in a blast zone? Does the building require HEMP (high-altitude electromagnetic) protection? Will the building control remote dispersed assets? Each industry has rules and regulations regarding facility siting, and working with an architect that understands the implications of how to design to meet or exceed those regulations is critical. For example, since the BP Texas City explosion in 2005, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and regulatory agencies (OSHA and U.S. Chemical Safety Board) have focused on developing new and revised recommended practices for risk assessment and mitigation requirements for temporary and permanent buildings located in or around processing units (e.g. API RP-752 and 753).

In addition to the regulatory compliance and legal liability protection benefits inherent in developing a facility siting risk-mitigation plan, developing a master facility plan is critical to the long-term planning for a site. It not only addresses the immediate risk assessment requirements, but also addresses long-term (5 yr/10yr/15yr) facility infrastructure improvements and asset optimization, addressing security, IT infrastructure, site circulation, and workforce optimization.

Control Room as the “Brain” of the Process Plant

Once the control building is sited properly, the second step is to focus on the control room. Control rooms are the center of the operation, where production is controlled. It is where a business can make or lose money for the company. It is where catastrophic incidents can start, be mitigated or prevented. These control rooms house the people that are responsible for operating the system, whether that system is a refinery, an electrical grid or a city’s train and subway system. Control room operators monitor and control technology and automation to manage the system remotely from a single room. Often the operators work long shifts in front of computer screens to ensure 24-7 coverage of the operation. Understanding the operator’s needs and how they interface with complex systems within a high-pressure environment is the first step.

The risk of an abnormal situation escalation is always present in a control room. A state-of-the-art control facility gives the operators the ability to return the situation to normal in the shortest amount of time possible. Dozens of factors are taken into account, such as the orientation of consoles, screen information, noise reduction, arc of reach, line of sight, clutter mitigation, manual placement— all of these have the potential to improve or degrade the operator’s reaction time and ability to communicate.

Design from the Operator Out

A human-centered approach to the design considers the needs of the operators first and foremost. Instead of designing from the outside-in by creating the architecture first, the building unfolds from within, the starting point being the operator, and is based on the programmatic functional and physical needs of that operator. As the demands for human-machine interface (HMI) have increased, so have the consequences resulting from inappropriate operator actions. ISO 11064 lays out measurable guidelines for ergonomics, also called human factors engineering, which play a primary role in the selection of the interior finishes, furniture, lighting and acoustics.

Measurable Elements to Good Control Room Design—According to ISO 11064

The final step is the selection of the interior finishes, lighting, acoustics, and furniture guided by ISO 11064 which lays out measurable guidelines for ergonomics that are proven to improve operator situational awareness.

FINISHES

Selecting finishes according to the ISO 11064 guidelines creates a comprehensive list of measurable criteria. The hierarchy of value goes from dark to light, floor to ceiling. In addition to the ISO requirements, the design must adhere to local building codes for flammability and slip resistance. The client’s standards also must be followed as well. Above all else, the finishes must meet functional and durability needs for building that must last upwards of 30 years. Some finishes can provide multiple uses. Acoustically absorptive wall panels can double as tack-able panels to pin up printed information, or triple as a visual break in a large wall plane if ceilings are high, or even as a decorative element which reflects regional identity while mitigating sound.

LIGHTING

Rather than an afterthought, good control room lighting should be as integrated into the design as the placement of the ceiling, walls and floor. The optimum lighting in a control room demands quality ambient, uniform illumination, which is a combination of fixtures such as indirect, task and suspended lighting. Appropriately designed lighting eliminates eye strain and improves operator efficiency. ISO 11064 spells out lighting requirements necessary throughout the control room.

ACOUSTICS

As important as the finishes and lighting, acoustics can make or break a control room. ISO 11064 dictates the ambient noise can range from 30 – 45 dB. Alarms, conversations, radios and computer noise create a distracting environment for the operators that can be mitigated by articulating the shapes of the ceiling and walls, and with the use of acoustic absorptive material for ceiling, wall and floor surfaces.

FURNITURE

A work environment informed by the science of ergonomics maximizes productivity and minimizes the risk of personal injury. Operator seating, sit/ stand consoles, screen display quantity and mounting heights, mobile files all positioned and designed according to ISO 11064 standards complete the good control room picture.

Consoles are highly customized workstations for the operators, the size and configuration of which is determined by management objectives, and limitations on the quantity of screens any one operator can monitor. ISO 11064 has ergonomic guidelines for reach and eyesight distances. Flat panel displays and touch screen technology take up less space, are more energy efficient and require less cooling within the console. The size and quantity of consoles dictate the size of the control room, rather than the other way around, with a set amount of square footage allowed per operator.

Sensory (Intangible) Elements Perceived from Good Control Room Design

SIGHT

When you walk into a well-designed control room, what makes that space work? The first thing you might sense is a feeling of spatial openness because of the high ceilings, and unobstructed views due to lack of columns. Workstations are uncluttered, since there is adequate space per operator. The finishes are light and complement the geometry of the room and regional aspects of the location, and the lighting is pleasantly glare-free. The space is designed from the operator-out, so the principles and elements of design are human-centric and harmonious. There is the right amount of both variety and unity—a state of agreement or a feeling of rightness.

 

SOUND

In a control room, noise and sound are two different things. Noise needs to be restrained, but sound defines the architecture. What is the sound of a control room? The hum of multiple computers, the quiet discussions among the operators as they collaborate to solve a problem, the clicking of a computer keyboard—acoustics can act in deep visceral ways not unlike music or the sense of smell.

 

TOUCH

How does a space feel? Air quality and temperature play a huge role in keeping operators alert and awake. Lack of a consistent ambient temperature is a common complaint in a control room as you travel through the space, which are often cold in one corner, hot in another and no one seems happy. Per ISO 11064 “the control room should be supplied with outdoor air in sufficient quantities to dilute internally generated pollutants.” In addition to fresh air, there should be the option for the operators to adjust the temperature or an automatic adjustment of temperature depending on the time of day to compensate for diurnal rhythms of body temperature. The goal is to create the perfect temperature and just enough air movement to stay awake and comfortable.

Conclusion

Common business challenges for companies planning new control facilities include short timelines, high risk outcomes, scarce human resources, and high expectations for return on investment to name a few. The search for areas to cut costs and save time and money is expected on all projects. The challenge is to balance that imperative without compromising proper control building design process. In summary:

• Start planning early with an experienced specialist in control building architecture
• Design from the operator outwards
• Apply ISO 11064 standards and best practices

As with any design process, the earlier changes are identified and implemented the less costly they will be. Shortcuts have a habit of showing up as issues later in the design process—and subsequently cost more to resolve. Do things right at the beginning, and reap the rewards for decades to come.

 

About the Authors

Brad A. Walker is an architect, president and founding principal, BAW Architecture, bawalker@bawarchitecture.com

Peggy A. Hewitt is an independent consultant and business development and marketing leader for BAW Architecture, phewitt@bawarchitecture.com

MaryAnn Lane is a Senior Interior Control Room Designer for BAW Architecture, mlane@bawarchitecture.com.