team.. With over 25 years’ experience in the construction industry, her experience lies in the structural design and project management within the Residential, Industrial, Retail, Educational and Commercial sectors where she is fully conversant with design of all major structural materials.
In all cases, a lab design should be developed as soon as possible, with material and personnel flows and relevant zonings mapped out across all lab and common areas to identify any potential issues.. 8.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.Bryden Wood’s long-term commitment to design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) shows how it is entirely possible to design varied and beautiful buildings using standardised, component-based designs that naturally promote reductions in materials, optimisation of components, reductions in embodied and operational carbon, and plan for end of life reuse..
While the building sector is already becoming familiar with certain sustainable design principles, like reducing energy consumption and striving to improve a building’s energy efficiency, these less common, lean design methodologies should also be adopted as key sustainability principles that will help us.combat climate change, cut carbon emissions and reach our net zero targets.
By considering the entire life cycle of a building, and adopting circular construction methodologies, firms can begin to reflect some of the values found in contemporary, circular business models, helping to create a more sustainable built environment and future.. 1. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data/uk-statistics-on-waste.To learn more about our Design to Value approach to design and construction, sign up for our monthly newsletter here:.