Introducing the Four Levels of Flexibility in the Sustainable Laboratory Building Design and Construction Process

Antton Altube, High Identity Buildings, S.L.
Adelmo Antelo, S*Concept/HIB

Laboratories are highly complex facilities due to their equipment, the risks associated with products and operations carried out inside them, and the high environmental impact of their activities. These characteristics underscore the need to work on improving these facilities, incorporating technical and technological advances that allow the optimization of resources.

The new global challenges that society must face highlight the need to opt for technology as a lifeline. Among these challenges for the laboratories in the 21st century is the high speed at which lines of research change the global world, which makes it possible that a scientific facility located in a particular site may need a change of location to ensure its viability. Both are reflected in the concept of flexibility.

The proposal presented in this paper shows the possibility of a new people-oriented laboratory model, to optimize resources and to respect and protect the environment while facing the new challenges of flexibility in the 21st century. The third and fourth degrees of flexibility aim to develop a building system designed for laboratory use that might match new challenges. Four main objectives are included for this purpose:

  1. To provide complete flexibility to the laboratory spaces that require adapting to new developed needs. The model is therefore able to generate, by the development of the FLEX FACILITIES-Lab concept, flexible engineering facilities able to take planned architecture.
  2. Promote the industrialized system in the construction process of laboratories. It is about creating a modular building system that is easy for assembly and disassembly, and is manufactured in a pavilion through an industrialized process through the concept of JUST IN TIME-Lab, allowing greater control and resulting in higher quality and setting time.
  3. Integrate a series of eco-technological components in the construction elements. This will lead to high energy efficiency (developing the SAVE-Lab concept), integration of renewable energy (developing the GREEN ENERGY-Lab concept), and minimizing environmental impact (developing the NEUTRAL-Lab concept).
  4. Ensure compliance with European standards for safety in laboratories, developing the SAFETY-Lab concept.

The process focuses on designing, planning and constructing flexible, industrialized, and eco-technological laboratory buildings that can be adjusted in a quick and flexible way to different laboratory types and user needs, which constantly change due to changes in research, new regulations, and new relocation needs of the growing market demand. This presentation shows some examples of buildings where this philosophy has been applied.

Biographies:

Antton Altube is the Chief Innovation Officer of High Identity Buildings (HIB). He is the former technical manager of specialized company in planning, equipping, and installing laboratories, and the Gas Installation Department Manager of an engineering company. Since 1997, he has taken part in the elaboration of laboratory standards and technical reports both for Europe and Spain, such as the EN 14.175 (fume cupboards) and the NTP 677 for the Spanish Occupational Health and Safety National Institute (INSHT). He received a degree in Industrial Engineering in Chemistry from the High School of Engineering of Bilbao, Spain, in 1994. At present, he is also the Chairman of WG4 of EGNATON.

Mr. Adelmo Antelo is the Managing Director of High Identity Buildings (HIB) & S*concept and the President of the MAITE Foundation. After more than fifteen years of experience developing projects in the field of laboratory facilities around Europe, he founded three years ago the enterprise HIB& S*concept, devoted to the consultancy, laboratory planning, engineering, architecture, and integral development of scientific buildings. He is a former managing director of subsidiaries of specialized company in planning and manufacturing laboratory furniture. Presently, he is a board member of EGNATON and council member of I2SL's Global Sustainable Laboratory Network.