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.

strobic fans), which may be necessary for some office to lab conversions.Of course, local standards elsewhere will vary.. 5.

Existing office buildings may struggle to accommodate new laboratory utility plant and distribution.. A typical lab will consume two to five times as much energy as an office and may also have additional back-up power requirements.This means more power and cooling, and therefore more plant (e.g.chillers, heat pumps, generators, UPS) and distribution which can be difficult to install due to lack of space.

Also, existing office utility plant may simply be too old, inefficient, or unreliable for lab use, making upgrades necessary..While purified water can be generated locally, drainage for lab sinks and equipment can be challenging due to a lack of risers in a standard office and difficulties achieving falls, so an overhead pumped system may be necessary.

Liquid waste may need to be collected and even treated on-site, which again means additional plant space, and potential spillage (e.g.

from vessels or emergency showers) also needs to be assessed – particularly on upper-floor office conversions.. Lastly, labs will typically use a range of gasses.What would a zero-carbon building look like across its whole lifespan?

There is a pressing need to reduce carbon emissions in the short term, so although having an efficient building over a 50-year period is a good outcome, it is insufficient if it causes a huge emission of CO2 in the next few years.There are technologies being developed that extract CO2 from the atmosphere to incorporate into building materials.

These ideas offer the opportunity to make the construction of an asset carbon negative.. How can we build and not just protect diversity (e.g.move a threatened species) but provide the foundations to increase natural habitats?