This should send a strong message to the construction industry.
Converting offices to labs.This is something else we’re looking at – or designing the mechanical and electrical engineering systems in new office buildings so that they are flexible enough to change usage later.
Obviously, there’s a challenge in thinking about ceiling heights and so on, but mostly the complexity is around air exchange.In an office, you aim for one and a half air changes per hour, whereas with laboratories, because they've got lots of safety cabinets and other devices, we have to look at 10, 15 or even 20 changes an hour in some places.So the ductwork has to be 10 times as big, and the risers 10 times as big to carry the air up and down, and so on.
Designing in flexibility presents lots of interesting challenges.. Master planning and MEP Design for a precious metals refinery.We started working on this precious metals refinery in 2016.
They refine five different types of precious metal.
The precious metals are obtained in raw form from many sources, but most come from catalytic converters in car exhausts.The increasing digitisation of relevant information and data, and our ability to import that data into the planning process in meaningful ways will further help engagement.
Well constructed visual representations make raw data accessible to a wide audience.This will allow people to consider individual planning applications in broader contexts – of sustainability or social mobility, say – or understand the trade-offs and implications inherent in making changes to part of a development.
Overall, it will mean the public can form and offer opinions based on rich and contextualised information, rather than on inaccessible and indigestible data and projects in isolation..In other words, it will allow more people to engage in the right way at the right point in the planning process, accessing the right information and able to give the right kind of opinion.. Further, this will enable a holistic view; the ability to consider planning applications in relation to each other, in terms of design etc.