LABORATORY DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
A building that will help to ‘make science happen’
Thomas Cosker, associate at engineering consultancy, Buro Happold, shares insights on designing the London Institute of Medical Sciences’ new laboratory. The consultancy delivered MEP and lab design services, as well as sustainability, civil, structural, acoustic, vibration and fire engineering, to create ‘world- class technical facilities’ that now house over 40 different scientific research groups.
Great office spaces are more than just the bricks and mortar used to build them. They are built with occupants in mind, to create places people want to work in that encourage collaboration and productivity. A laboratory is no different. Our brief as MEP and lab design consultants for the London Institute of Medical Sciences’ (LMS) new Hammersmith-based home was to create a space that incorporated world-class technical facilities into a building that would maximise the potential of the scientists who work within it. This may seem strange, as we often think of science as a field full of great individuals, but the days of the ‘lone genius’ are long gone. Scientific research is built on effective and constant collaboration. To reflect this, LMS’ new laboratory was designed to celebrate and support truly collaborative team science that recognises that discoveries aren’t made alone.
Building on a congested hospital site With these aims in mind, the new 12,500 m2 laboratory will accommodate over 40 research groups for the first time, in a single, ultra-modern space. Until recently, these groups worked in a number of older buildings across Imperial College London’s Hammersmith Hospital campus. This was not conducive to effective collaboration, and so bringing all these groups together under one roof, for the first time, was a key objective of the project. The site itself is congested, with not much room for a new building. As a result the new laboratory is tall, with facilities set across seven floors to accommodate all the scientists and technical equipment required. The location of the building on a fully
operational hospital campus also created its own considerations. New gas and water supplies needed to be connected to the building. This is often a relatively straightforward task, but roadworks needed to be carefully considered as they would be on a blue light ambulance route. However, building on the existing hospital campus created opportunities
38 Health Estate Journal March 2024
Above: Buro Happold says the new LMS building is ‘a shining example of how engineering and architecture can greatly enhance the experience and productivity of building occupiers’.
Left: Part of the building façade and an entrance, pictured at night.
too. For example, we were able to connect the new laboratory to the existing district heat-pump network, greatly improving the building’s energy efficiency. Creating a site that runs efficiently is
essential for any building, and laboratories are no different. Some make the mistake of thinking efficiency is only a consideration once a building becomes operational. However, creating a building that runs efficiently, but more importantly effectively, for the occupiers, begins at the design stage. At the LMS, Estates and Facilities Management personnel were involved throughout the design process. One of the key challenges for Buro Happold’s MEP consultants was to create a site that had impressive energy efficiency credentials – a tough task considering that scientific equipment and essential air filtration systems can be hugely energy-intensive. For instance, air change is an essential part
of how any laboratory functions, and a general lab might typically be designed to accommodate six air changes per hour.
Air change considerations Fans constantly remove air and replace it with fresh air from outside. New air entering the building also needs to be heated or cooled to match the temperature requirements of the building. This can be very energy-intensive, depending on the temperature outside. At the LMS, we reduced this to four air changes. This has no detrimental effect on the quality of workspaces or scientific productivity, but is set to create significant energy savings. There were also similar considerations when installing fume cupboards on the site. Fume cupboards are needed to extract harmful fumes from the building. However, any air removed also needs to be replaced with fresh air, again making it an
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