However, substantial development and investment in recent years by the government and private bodies has reduced the carbon factor of the grid, through the use of renewables, nuclear power stations, and so on.
An office to lab conversion also cannot be detrimental to the amenity of residential areas (e.g.noise, vibration, fumes), and this may still require demonstration via CFD or noise modelling.
Appointment of a Planning Consultant and application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is often advisable..Furthermore, new external chillers, AHUs (air-handling units), stacks and fans, louvres, waste stores, external access, and other material changes to the office building may still result in the need for Planning Permission.This can add many unexpected weeks or even months to a project and introduces an element of risk.
In the fast-moving life science industry this is particularly frustrating and removes much of the benefit of converting an office in the first place.The faster a lab can be designed, the faster these issues can be assessed and potentially mitigated.. Planning and other permitting matters will of course differ significantly outside the UK and a different approach will also be necessary.. 7.
Existing offices may lack sufficient common areas or can pose problems for lab material and personnel flows throughout the wider building.. Office elevators sometimes aren’t big enough to transport larger lab equipment (e.g.
some automated bioreactors and liquid handlers) or HVAC and utility plant, which can only be broken down so far, and just because these items aren’t required on day one, an assessment should be made on potential future needs..• trying things and failing fast.
These processes act as a tool bag: one is never sure at the start of a project the necessary order of things – although dialogue always comes first..Many clients might expect a roadmap that they can follow, but part of Design to Value is the capacity to live with a bit of uncertainty.
Clients need to understand that their project team members might feel uncomfortable about a new and unfamiliar process and we encourage the senior client representative to reassure their team that this is expected and it’s okay.They need to understand that the standard processes are comfortably wrong: everyone feels comfortable about them but they produce the wrong answer, and that is because the path is predefined.. Once the values of a project are established, diagramming begins.