“We are nothing if not ambitious,” says Ian Caldwell, director of estates and facilities at King’s, which is one of the largest colleges of the University of London. “We are one of the largest providers of medical education in Europe and we have strong links with the National Health Service which gives us a unique advantage in that we have a huge patient base for research. We have for example, five Medical Research Council Centers and host three Department of Health Research Centers of Excellence, and our clinical partners have one of the largest clinical transplantation programs in Europe.”

The College was founded in 1829 by King George IV and is the fourth oldest institution in England. As such, there is a continuous need to upgrade facilities and to construct new buildings to meet the growing demands of scientific research. A noteworthy expansion began in 1997 when the College merged with the Institute of Psychiatry and the medical school of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital. That particular expansion and subsequent improvements have positioned the College as one of the top research universities in the UK and one of the top 50 in the world, with five campuses in the heart of London.

Five years after the merger, the College addressed the poor condition of the original 1930s King’s Building on its Strand Campus by implementing sustainable solutions to reduce energy consumption and to lower operating costs. The traditional solution would have been to simply modify the structure by installing central air conditioning and other amenities.

Instead, services were consolidated and partitions were removed to create more open spaces with increased natural lighting and ventilation. Internal shutters control solar gain and provide better lighting control and the insulated slate roof makes the building cooler for occupants in the summer and warmer in the winter. Additional sustainable features at the King’s Building include an advanced energy management system, sensor-controlled lighting and restroom fixtures, 80 percent recycling or reuse of wastes, and the use of timber certified by the UK’s Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an initiative aimed at preventing global forest destruction.

“Over the last decade, there has been substantial investment in UK universities on a scale unprecedented since the post-World War II redevelopment,” notes Caldwell. “Much of this has been in support of the UK’s scientific research.

In order to better support the ever-changing scientific research, universities are working closely with the Higher Education Design Quality Forum (HEDQF), a client forum of the Royal Institution of British Architects that is equivalent to the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The goal of the collaboration is to encourage a higher quality of university buildings through, for example, increased sustainability, improved flexibility, decreased energy usage, and enhanced operating efficiency. Creating this type of building can be achieved by incorporating proper design strategies into renovation and construction projects.

Essential Design Issues

Key design issues, which are relatively the same in the UK and the United States, focus on creating multidisciplinary facilities that evoke a sense of place, including the most modern technology with robotics and computerization, and ensuring long-term sustainability. High-quality architectural buildings that feature these characteristics make it easier to recruit the best staff and students from around the world. In addition, these facilities are more attractive to financial sponsors, many of whom now demand the ability to conduct cutting-edge, multidisciplinary scientific research.

“The 21st Century is multidisciplinary and silos of single disciplines are now reminiscent of the 20th Century,” notes Caldwell. “New technology is constantly being introduced. In fact, the amount of wet lab space is shrinking remarkably as high-tech equipment and computers take over.”

The biggest drivers fueling the design of new and renovated research buildings in the UK are:

• the need to recruit top staff and students in a competitive, international marketplace;
• the regeneration of primarily-Victorian cities;
• interdisciplinary research and the growing importance of interactive social spaces to promote collaboration;
• collaboration between institutions, such as health care trusts, research sponsors, and universities;
• the need for more flexibility by including as much generic space as possible; and
• the desire to minimize annual operating costs.

Characteristics of UK Research Buildings

Even before he started working for King’s College, Caldwell was studying other research facilities in the UK and beyond to determine what design and construction methods were being implemented and which were achieving positive results. He is now using the lessons he learned from looking at other facilities to ensure the buildings on the King’s College campuses are designed with the utmost attention to sustainability.

Among the well-known research buildings he examined was the Salk Institute in San Diego. The building features generic modular laboratories, support facilities that are well laid out, and a unique sense of place.

The Sir Alexander Fleming Building on the campus of Imperial College in London was completed about 10 years ago. It includes generic laboratories, tissue culture rooms, shared spaces, and specialized facilities in the basement. A central atrium connects the Biology Department and the School of Medicine.

Other notable buildings in London that display important design concepts are the Cancer Research Centre at Cambridge University, the Sir Henry Wellcome Interdisciplinary Biocentre at Manchester University, the Blizard Building at Queen Mary University. The Cancer Centre boasts a solar shading system that tracks the sun’s movement to reduce heat gain and glare, thereby reducing energy consumption.

The interdisciplinary biocentre at Manchester utilizes bridges to connect offices and laboratories in a very open, generic layout that fosters a scientific culture with no barriers between disciplines. The landmark building includes multifunctional laboratories, separate support facilities, generous meeting rooms, and an atrium. The building is part of the regeneration of Manchester with the ground floor being at street level to connect with the city.

The Blizard Building presents a cutting-edge design aimed at contributing to the city’s regeneration, revitalizing the local hospital, and providing a public space for entertainment and socialization. The lower level consists of standard laboratories with interactive meeting rooms on the next level. While the laboratories are generic, the atrium and architecture create a sense of place.

The Sir James Black Centre at King’s College includes public spaces at the street level, while the lower level houses specialized research facilities and electronic equipment. An interstitial floor provides easy maintenance without interrupting the research.

One wing of the Centre houses generic labs with adjacent tissue-culture and freezer rooms and the other wing provides office space. An atrium provides a gathering place to accommodate a large number of people. Staircases are used to hide the lifts as part of the College’s energy conservation policy.

“We didn’t provide ceilings in the laboratories as part of the campaign to make them easy to maintain,” notes Caldwell. “Obviously, we provided ceilings in offices for acoustic reasons. We left all of the services exposed in order to eliminate problems in the coordination of services. It costs the same as if you had the ceiling, but in the long-term life of the building it makes it easier to change.”

Sustainability in London

Sustainability is of the utmost importance in the UK just as it is in the United States, encompassing environmental, societal, and financial issues. It is essential to consider the financial sustainability of research buildings, which can be capital-intensive with high operating and maintenance costs. Achieving the right balance between capital expenses and recurring costs contributes to reaching bottom-line budget objectives. Implementing sustainable design and construction measures can lower energy usage and decrease overall operating costs. Being a good steward of the environment places a facility in a higher standing with nearby communities.

“The most important thing is to rethink the way buildings are designed to minimize energy use. In the 20th Century, offices were designed as flexible boxes, almost ignoring the basic principles of good environmental design,” says Caldwell. “Also, we are a small island compared to the United States and traffic congestion is a major issue. We are no longer self-sufficient regarding energy or water. The recent increase in energy prices is making people realize that sustainable design can lead to financial benefits.”

The biggest difference between sustainable design efforts in the UK and the United States is that planning and building control legislation is forcing change in England. Sustainability is a top priority of London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who is using legislative action to drive his ambitious objectives. His primary target is to achieve a 60 percent reduction in carbon emissions from the 1990 levels by 2125. He is focusing on transport and buildings, which are the biggest producers of carbon emissions.

The mayor is investing in cycling improvements, the pedestrian walkways, and a new transportation infrastructure. London is one of the few cities in the world where the use of public transportation has increased over the last five years mainly because of the mayor’s approach. His policy covers not only transportation, but also changing behavior by trying to get residents to conserve energy. In fact, King’s College has implemented an awareness campaign, for example, encouraging staff members to turn off their computers in the evening.

The mayoral policy also calls for retrofitting existing buildings and achieving a zero carbon target for new buildings.

“We must forget the way we designed buildings in the 1970s by tweaking the environment to compensate for the building’s inadequacies,” advises Caldwell. “Buildings should be designed properly from the first day and we should adopt sustainable design and construction measures.”

Sustainable design in the UK means planning for a building’s lifetime, using sustainable materials, managing water, minimizing energy demand, and decreasing waste and its impact on the environment.

The mayor also has a plan for decentralized energy schemes of combining heat and power instead of relying on power stations hundreds of miles away. He is a big proponent of renewable energy sources.

Caldwell says the most difficult part of the plan calls for 20 percent of a facility’s on-site energy to be generated from renewable methods, such as wind, water, tide, photovoltaic cells, water heating, ground cooling/heating technologies, or biomass, which is basically wood chip and other such fuels.

“In rural areas, the 20 percent requirement is more feasible, but the main difficulty is in cities. The transport requirements, for example, for biomass are substantial and if all major developments did this, the city would be clogged with trucks,” says Caldwell. “King’s College currently buys its energy from hydro-generated sources in Scotland. Photovoltaic cells and wind turbines are still not cost-effective in cities.”

Assessing Projects

The UK uses a national assessment called the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), which is similar to the LEED certification. Although the BREEAM does not have a formal assessment method for labs, it assesses buildings against a set criteria and provides an overall score of pass, good, very good, or excellent.

“With new buildings, this starts with the design and allows us to look at the cost benefit of different measures,” says Caldwell. “Refurbishments are more difficult, hence, we go for a lesser target as the existing building can affect the assessment.”

BREEAM scoring categories are used to assess the following areas: management; health and well-being of occupants; water, energy, and transportation; materials and waste; land use and ecology; and pollution. Since there is no official BREEAM manual, each facility is expected to provide the building users with information about how to achieve the best score in each category. For example, users may be told to conserve energy by remembering to turn off lights, or to open windows to bring in more daylight and to improve ventilation.

King’s College has set a target of achieving an “excellent” score for new buildings and at least a “very good” rating for refurbishments.

Currently, there are several new buildings either in the design or feasibility stage at the College. Demolition of an old medical school building on the Denmark Hill Campus is under way. The new $18.8-million (USD) Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care is being designed. The 19,500-sf building, slated for completion in May 2009, will provide undergraduate, master’s, and postgraduate education in palliative care for students and healthcare professionals from around the world. The building will be heated and cooled from groundwater, increasing the cost of the project by about three percent. However, the additional money will be recouped in savings in two years.

The King’s Clinical Neurosciences Institute is an $80-million project expected to be under construction in late 2008 with completion set for 2010. The building is planned to  feature a combined heat and power plant and the reuse of water. The building will be divided into two sections, one for offices and one for laboratories.

“We are almost ending up with two different buildings, one naturally ventilated where we can use groundwater cooling and heating, and the other one for the energy-intensive laboratories,” says Caldwell. “We see buildings splitting almost in two to reflect their different uses and different energy needs with the atrium in between as a means of bringing people together.”

Other projects in the feasibility stage at King’s College include building a new cancer research facility and renovating the entrance to the Institute of Psychiatry at an estimated cost of $24 million.

Caldwell says future construction projects may be guided to some extent by the increased use of wireless technology and the issue of climate change risk. Photovoltaic cells and wind turbines currently are not cost-effective, but may be within five years. Ground water systems are cost-effective, but are limited in cities by the proximity of buildings.

“There are sensible things we can do to create energy-efficient buildings without being a zealot,” he says. “One of them is simply teaching people how to use buildings properly and the other is using natural methods of heating and cooling. The aim of future buildings is to make them future-proof.”

By Tracy Carbasho

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