Research Laboratories in the United Kingdom—Energy Benchmarking and Impact of Future Design Drivers
Jennifer DiMambro, Arup
Over the past few years, the science-focused business areas within the UK construction industry has seen growth primarily in the higher education sector, rather than the previously big-spending pharmaceutical and commercial sectors. Hand-in-hand with this growth, there has been increased interest from architectural practices in these projects, which has increased the focus on "softer" issues such as quality of space and working environment, as well as an overarching drive to reduce energy consumption.
Higher education laboratory projects have provided a platform for clients and design teams to develop a new breed of laboratory without many of the constraints associated with commercial ventures. Organizations that are set up to promote learning are keen to explore the opportunities to create environments that promote creative thinking, and how the quality of the space impacts this.
Additionally, higher education institutes are attuned to the realities of energy consumption and cost on several fronts:
- With the rising cost of energy, increasing fuel bills divert limited funds away from other priorities.
- Higher education funding is becoming linked to energy targets and carbon emissions, forcing institutes to reassess energy usage.
- Sustainability and green credentials are increasingly important for undergraduates when choosing universities.
There is limited information available regarding energy benchmarks, other than that provided by the Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement (HEEPI) Indicators Initiative. This paper discusses the HEEPI figures, compares them to recent laboratory projects in the United Kingdom, and looks at where differences occur and the reasons behind them. This presentation will focus on a recent case study for a major plant science laboratory at a university in the United Kingdom.
Setting energy benchmarks early on in a design project, even at the time of bidding, is becoming more important for clients; the paper goes on to look at how feasible it is to set up reliable benchmarks for laboratories, given the diverse nature of the work undertaken in them. This ties in to much of the work undertaken by Labs21 and HEEPI.
As a final point, it is important to understand what the future design drivers are for laboratories and where ultimately this may lead energy consumption. One of the main trends is in analytical analysis and imaging and the ever-increasing demand for power and data. This, and other future trends, will be discussed in relation to their likely impact on energy usage.
Biography:
Jennifer DiMambro is an associate at Arup, a leading international engineering consultancy. Based in London, Ms. DiMambro has worked at Arup for 13 years and has specialized in laboratory design for much of this time.
In recent years she has led multi-disciplinary teams on major new-build higher education laboratory projects both in the United Kingdom and the United States, working for Princeton, Cambridge, and University College London. The main focus in recent projects has been on the integration of world-class architecture with the functionality required for a laboratory, and on the development of low-energy design strategies.
She has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Nottingham University, and a master’s degree in interdisciplinary design and the built environment from the University of Cambridge, both in the United Kingdom.