Share thisA look at renovation, expansion, and conversion
Developing and planning a new research facility for animal study presents many challenges to the design team and to the stakeholders alike. When considering construction costs, the laboratory owner may opt for the renovation or conversion of an existing facility, as opposed to building a new facility from the ground up. This might seem to cut cost on the front end of the project, yet it could have serious ramifications for the use and occupancy of the facility. What good is a reduced construction outlay if the laboratory and supporting facilities themselves hamper, taint, or otherwise undermine the study and research for which the facility was designed?
In fact, existing structures and facilities often make quite excellent new vivariums. A careful approach and project plan can deliver a successful, healthy, and thriving research center, as long as the design team bears in mind a handful of crucial elements. Applying these few guidelines should not be a matter of rote, however—laboratory operators and designers recommend taking a holistic approach: What is good for science is also good for the animals, the scientists and other human occupants— and the environment as well.
1. The Planning Stage
As with new construction, a laboratory renovation or conversion project should begin with the animal. The type and size of the animal or animals being studied is the fulcrum on which the entire facility design must balance. If the health and safety of the animal is in any way compromised, so is the research.
Starting with careful and detailed attention to the facility mission and goals, lab planners and the architecture-and-engineering (A/E) team should consider the lifelong care and safety of the animal. How many of each animal is required for the study? How can animal stress and anxiety be managed or eliminated?Can the facility be adapted to provide a consistent environment for the animal? Does the research involve non-survival or surgical procedures? If the research involves transgenic animals, this introduces an additional list of requirements for proper animal care. Contamination of a transgenic population means a huge loss, both scientific and financial.
Following this process, the comfort and ease of research for the human occupants should be the priority. In our work for the University of Connecticut’s Agricultural Biotechnology Laboratory and Greenhouse, the incorporated animal care facility provided a special challenge. The laboratory was to be multi-purpose, involving human study and plant study as well as animal research. Space was at a premium, though the project was entirely new construction.
The university’s research on small animals allowed for the use of micro-isolators as housing and caging environments. The advantage of these, apart from their direct connections to the facility’s mechanical systems, was the reduction in space requirements including the elimination of separate clean and dirty utility corridors. By eliminating the possibility of cross-contamination from proximity, more animals could be housed in smaller quarters. These lessons have been subsequently applied to other conversion and renovation projects by U Conn and other animal research facilities designed for Yale University and its medical school. These considerations are all the more important for the team converting or renovating an existing building, since they will not have the luxury of designing the structure specifically to support the mission of the new lab. Instead, they will have to grapple with an existing structure, which, hopefully, has been well chosen.