That way, people can dress according to how warm they feel, which will make them more comfortable, and more productive as a result.. What can building occupiers do for both the environment and energy efficiency?.
Existing office buildings may struggle to accommodate more onerous laboratory fire and egress requirements.. A lab will most likely contain more flammable or hazardous materials and sources of ignition than an office.In most cases this can be addressed with special storage cabinets, fume cabinets, and good housekeeping.
However, where larger quantities or more dangerous materials are used (e.g.oxygen, or even inert materials like liquid nitrogen) this can be particularly challenging.Further complications may also arise where labs divide up previously open plan offices with new partitions, corridors, airlocks, pods, or inner rooms – further complicating egress routes.. For office to lab conversions, fire and egress strategies must be reviewed holistically with the whole building in mind.
For example, neighbouring tenancies may currently rely on staff crossing through the new lab to reach a second means of escape, which might no longer be possible.Similarly, labs in office buildings can result in additional occupancy types (‘purpose groups’ in the UK) and will therefore drive the need for additional fire compartments.. Possible solutions could include storing materials or siting labs on ground or lower floors, local gas generation (to reduce peak volumes), detection, shut-off and alarm systems, local extract or natural ventilation, and it may be necessary to divide labs up into smaller compartments to keep hazardous material quantities below acceptable limits.
In the UK it can also be useful to appoint a specialist Approved Inspector rather than go through the Local Authority Building Control.
This will often accelerate the project, which is particularly important in the life science industry, and they will be more familiar with labs and specialist standards that can be more forgiving (e.g.In Design to Value, all elements of the project stay in play.
Collaborative teams question the value drivers as they go along and they even question the problem statement.Sometimes problem statements can be rewritten – part way through a project, answers might be found but the team may determine they are insufficient, and perhaps the very question they are answering needs reframing.
Everything has to be fluid.This approach means that the architect or engineer does not simply design or build a structure; they become part of the business, seeking to solve a problem or open up new ways of working..