Accelerate Labs round table report | The future of laboratories
Social distancing measures will help reduce internal heat gain, as there will be fewer people using fewer computers in each office.
Capacity modelling may also be necessary to better forecast the amount of equipment, benching, storage, desks, lockers, etc.over the long-run.. Capacity model for a biopharma QC lab showing utilisation of individual equipment items over time.. 2.
Height.. Limited headroom in existing offices may be insufficient for taller lab equipment or increased services distribution.. An ideal starting-point for a lab is a floor-to-floor height between 4.2 and 4.5m, with an office typically being in the 3.6 to 4.2m range.. Taller items such as fume cabinets and MBSCs can normally be accommodated under a 2.7m high ceiling (similar to what you might find in a modern office), however some specialist or larger-scale equipment will require additional headroom or maintenance and withdrawal space, and localised raised ceilings may be necessary, or the equipment simply might not fit.. Labs require many more services than an office, which normally means a deeper ceiling void.Limited risers in offices can also result in more service crossovers and congestion, increasing this depth further still.It is often possible to mitigate some of this through good design, such as lowering ceilings in corridors to accommodate main ductwork runs or positioning lower height rooms close to risers.
Ground floor units and older office buildings may also have larger floor-to-floor heights, and there can even be opportunities to increase headroom by removing raised-access floors (though this will impact floor thresholds.)A deeper ceiling void may also introduce the need for sprinklers or fire detection systems.. 3.
Structural frames in existing office buildings may be unable to support higher lab loads or vibration sensitive equipment..
Some automated and larger-scale lab equipment can be particularly heavy, and even high densities of smaller equipment or storage items can result in relatively high loads when compared to a standard office fit-out.Some extra space for unexpected changes or new technology introductions will almost certainly be beneficial in the long-run, and consideration should also be given to areas outside the main lab, such as the impact of automation or remote working on write-up and meeting areas.
Rather than cater to all eventualities, a cost-benefit analysis will often drive an ’80:20’ approach towards future flexibility..While office to lab conversions may seem to make good economic sense, compromises around productivity and flexibility can impact the life science business, tenant, or developer in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.
Many of these issues can be mitigated simply through good design, and, in our experience, layouts need to be detailed earlier than a new-build project.Capacity modelling may also be necessary to better forecast the amount of equipment, benching, storage, desks, lockers, etc.