Articles:

Some automated and larger-scale lab equipment can be particularly heavy, and even high densities of smaller equipment or storage items can result in relatively high loads when compared to a standard office fit-out.

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.

Of course, there are a wide range of other health, safety, and environmental regulations to incorporate, as well as the possibility of insurance or employer standards and recommendations that can, for example, dictate sprinklers even when this isn’t a legal necessity.. 9.Façades & finishes..Existing office façades and finishes may be unsuitable for more stringent lab conditions.. For most office to lab conversions façades will simply require locking of openable windows and general making good.

However, for Containment Level 3 (or BSL3) labs and above, cleanrooms, environments requiring exceptionally tight tolerances, and other more onerous requirements, façades can be quite problematic.Airtightness is a particular challenge that can make a perfectly adequate office facade ill-suited for lab use, or may result in suppliers unwilling to guarantee lab performance, or disputes during commissioning.

In such cases, rather than re-clad the building (which defeats most of the point of a conversion) a possible solution is a ‘box in a box’ lab fit-out, though this will be more expensive and will reduce net usable space..

Furthermore, given how much energy labs consume compared to an office it may be sensible to improve the performance of an older façade, which will, of course, add cost and programme, and there can be other issues around cladding, for example, some systems and materials used in offices are not accepted by life science businesses and insurers for fire safety and loss prevention reasons.. Office finishes are unlikely to be suitable for lab use, and it is almost always best to complete a full strip-out of the office at the start of a project.The artificiality of grasping for certainty was a flawed survival strategy.

Facing and accepting where you are today, with hope and certainty that you will find a solution, a way out at some point equipped people advantageously..Both gripping stories and afar from the project world, and yet they can tell us something about the human condition and how the intuitive response to find certainty, something to hold onto, is very unhelpful at times..

So what does this mean in the world of projects?It means ensuring that the purpose, aspiration and hope for the project is kept alive.