Building Consultancy Services - Science & Technology

The integration of specialist laboratory services, including gases and water, into both existing and new buildings need to be considered early and at length. The critical nature of these services to operate key equipment requires simple maintenance access, with reliable connections and valves to ensure consistent operation or quick replacement in the event of a failure. Ventilation systems are generally larger than in other types of commercial buildings and greater volumes of air lead to increased duct sizes and plant overall. This can require dedicated routing and place additional structural loads on existing buildings in areas not previously expected, often requiring structural alteration.

Co-ordination of all these systems is key to future maintenance and the ease of alteration which is inevitably required across the life of the building.

Power, gas and water supplies require resilience to reduce the risk of failure, which generally means the provision of alternative supplies, standby generators, tanks, and pumps. This all takes up additional space which can be problematic with works in existing buildings if build with life science use in mind, potentially creating additional cost and time.

Identifying these issues early helps prevent problems arising later in the design period, which if left unchecked may lead to congested space, insufficient maintenance access, or restrictive planning constraints.

At Carter Jonas, we provide advice pre-building purchase to help ensure that these matters are considered in the offer price.

Specialist laboratory consumables – whether they be laboratory coats, gloves, bottled gases or filters used in scrubbers and fume cabinets all need detailed consideration. Consideration of access to deliver new products, move them around the building, store them ready for use or distribution of them when used or contaminated ready for collection and safe disposal. Direct access externally to safe entry points with sufficient external storage areas are key. This allows for out of hours collection by specialist companies and for items which may be delicate to be protected during inclement weather and distributed throughout the building easily. Items such as liquid nitrogen have specialist storage requirements and particular delivery needs. External tanks for gas items require easy access for top up, with additional thought on protecting leakage into drainage systems and from fire risk.

These areas all often need to be secure involving additional fencing and cctv services – items which can impact upon access, parking, planning permission and vehicle routes.

Specialist equipment within laboratories is often on a long lead time and is generally particular about storage, delivery and services connectivity. Buildings need to be planned out to consider routes through for the movement of new equipment, both when a new facility and for replacement in the future as the science changes. Constraints of corridors, low ceilings and structural beams can soon render a building unsuitable in the short-term future. Long lead-in times can often have an impact on the construction phasing for works should equipment be ‘built-in’ to any of the building’s fabric.