The conversation has just started, however there are some clear ways forward: -.

While office to lab conversions may seem to make good economic sense, compromises around productivity and flexibility can impact the life science business, tenant, or developer in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.Many of these issues can be mitigated simply through good design, and, in our experience, layouts need to be detailed earlier than a new-build project.

Capacity modelling may also be necessary to better forecast the amount of equipment, benching, storage, desks, lockers, etc.over the long-run.. Capacity model for a biopharma QC lab showing utilisation of individual equipment items over time.. 2.Height.. Limited headroom in existing offices may be insufficient for taller lab equipment or increased services distribution.. An ideal starting-point for a lab is a floor-to-floor height between 4.2 and 4.5m, with an office typically being in the 3.6 to 4.2m range.. Taller items such as fume cabinets and MBSCs can normally be accommodated under a 2.7m high ceiling (similar to what you might find in a modern office), however some specialist or larger-scale equipment will require additional headroom or maintenance and withdrawal space, and localised raised ceilings may be necessary, or the equipment simply might not fit.. Labs require many more services than an office, which normally means a deeper ceiling void.

Limited risers in offices can also result in more service crossovers and congestion, increasing this depth further still.It is often possible to mitigate some of this through good design, such as lowering ceilings in corridors to accommodate main ductwork runs or positioning lower height rooms close to risers.

Ground floor units and older office buildings may also have larger floor-to-floor heights, and there can even be opportunities to increase headroom by removing raised-access floors (though this will impact floor thresholds.)

A deeper ceiling void may also introduce the need for sprinklers or fire detection systems.. 3.In the US alone (about 1/3 of the global market), over 40 million square feet of lab and R&D space is currently under construction, with the global life sciences market forecast to grow on average 13% per year between now and 2030.. Fast Lab is now in development, and we are interested in working with innovative, forward-thinking life science businesses and developers to meet this growing demand…The life sciences are undergoing a rapid transformation fuelled by a convergence in maturing technologies, scientific breakthroughs, demographics, and geopolitical trends – much of which accelerated during the pandemic.

Globally, the sector is forecast to more than double by 2030, while in the UK investment has already increased 12x over the last decade.Laboratories play a key part in this transformation, supporting all stages of the life science value-chain: including R&D, quality control, diagnostic services, and teaching.

As a result, demand for labs is growing rapidly.In Cambridge and Oxford for example (two of the UK’s main life science hubs), demand for labs now outstrips available supply by nearly a hundred to one.