HVAC,Vivarium Design,Facility Design and Build,Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing

The conflicting needs of attracting researchers while building facilities that meet research needs has led to designs that are adaptable and can accommodate a variety of species.

Designing a vivarium facility generally revolves around the needs of specific researchers and the requirements of Animal Care departments. Today, more and more facilities Dare being designed with the mission of retaining and/or attracting new researchers. Institutions are also realizing that researchers relocate more frequently; often requiring facility modifications. In order to design more flexible and adaptable vivariums, the new approach now requires that vivarium facilities must be flexible enough to accommodate a large majority of research requirements and study protocols. This flexibility should include: animal holding areas for a wide variety of species; adequate procedure space; central core facilities; and animal care areas to support these spaces and equipment.

The mission at many institutions is to build interdisciplinary research facilities focused on the integration of several disciplines brought together to develop common solutions.

The facilities are designed before the researchers, who would occupy the facility, have been identified, stretching the requirements for flexibility. The Animal Care departments then become responsible for overseeing the design and providing the design team with the requirements necessary to make the facility a success.

The process begins with establishing and documenting the goals of the facility. This should include the facility’s mission which will give guidance to the design requirements. The critical goals will include:

• List the animal species that should be accommodated in the facility. This list can include: rodents, rabbits, chickens, dogs, small pigs, NHPs, and/or several aquatic species.
• Select each species’ caging system which will become the main criteria used in the design of the animal holding rooms (AHR).
• Design a flexible AHR that can accommodate a wide variety of caging systems and layouts.
• Assign adequate procedure space adjacent to AHR.
• Design animal care support areas as critical to the operations of the vivarium.
• Engineer the support systems to meet the requirements of the flexible AHRs and other spaces.