Demand for science-related space has been falling at key locations in South East England and elsewhere – but a focus on the people who use these buildings, and on flexibility and utility, offers a recipe for success, finds Josephine Smit
Life sciences has become one of real estate’s most talked-about markets and is one of eight sectors where the government plans to go for growth. Its sights are set on the golden triangle of Oxford, Cambridge and London, and the potential to grow the first two locations into a science supercluster.
Yet since the heady days of post-pandemic investment, the sector has lost some lustre, with oversupply of space afflicting even the USA’s top life sciences destinations. A dip in venture capital funding, essential to develop bright ideas into treatments, products and businesses, and high UK interest rates have had an impact. Last year, property consultant Savills reports, take-up of science-related space in Oxford fell by 24 per cent and in London by 17 per cent.
This is also a competitive global market. In Europe and elsewhere, locations are snapping at the UK’s heels, as those speaking at this year’s MIPIM will debate.
‘The European building design and construction market has a substantial pharmaceutical manufacturing component, which of course involves the life sciences,’ says Thomas Vonier, senior architect at Paris-based Chesapeake Strategies, a committee member with the RIBA Europe chapter, which launches at Venice Biennale. He points to the architectural specialisms that have developed in this area.
The economic climate has limited science firms’ growth ambitions in the UK, says Tom Mellows, head of science at Savills, ‘making them much more cautious about outlaying capital on anything other than their research’. Now venture capital is starting to flow back to the sector, which needs to continue to create balance between demand and the UK’s significant future supply, he says.
‘The London market is really strong, but it’s so predicated on ensuring that significant volumes of capital can keep flowing into the broader ecosystem of organisations spinning out of universities and growing,’ says Jack Sallabank, director of research consultancy Future Places Studio (FPS), which has studied the capital city’s sector. He continues: ‘That’s out of the control of the real estate market, which has stepped up to the plate and delivered space where there was a shortage.’
'Alongside the science, building design needs to consider people'
In growing supply, the market has developed its understanding of what science needs, from the lab bench where a PhD student develops a good idea, to start-up labs, grow-on space and the HQs of big pharma and research bodies. Adaptability is recognised as essential, as are good amenities.
‘There’s probably a greater appreciation that scientists are normal people who like normal stuff,’ says Sallabank. ‘They want access to good coffee, bars and public realm.’ This is very obvious in the development of the Francis Crick-supported lab space for discovery research in Euston, London, with Gensler.
‘There had been a focus on purely the functionality of buildings in the sector,’ explains Emily Slupek, head of project management at Savills Oxford. ‘There’s a recognition now that alongside the science, you need to consider people, with placemaking, wellbeing and quality as high priorities.'
That perspective is echoed by Eugene Sayers, head of science at Sheppard Robson. ‘The new wave of buildings has raised the bar in what a science-based occupier can expect,’ he says. ‘Design definitely has an increased profile now.’
Ask Sayers what clients want and he highlights a universal workplace aspiration: ‘a magnet that will attract or retain staff, occupiers or tenants’. Science now also needs to be prominent, so schemes commonly incorporate expanses of glazing to enable colleagues and public to see scientists at work.
Desigining space to facilitate conversation and relaxation
The approach is evident in the practice’s design for a new global oral health innovation centre for consumer health company Haleon, under development in Weybridge, Surrey. The business is set to move, from a traditional building with offices at the front and laboratories hidden to the rear, to a new 8,000m2 building with R&D at its heart.
‘We have labs grouped together, which makes sense in terms of energy husbandry, and offices separated, which allows us to naturally ventilate them,’ explains Sayers. Offices and laboratories are separated by an atrium in what Sayers calls ‘a yin and yang plan with a continuous path’ facilitating chance conversations among workers. Shared facilities are located towards the building’s centre, with workers retreating out to the perimeter to undertake quieter tasks. A roof garden and terraces provide space for relaxation.
Alongside the science, you need to consider people, with placemaking, wellbeing and quality as high priorities
Such designs reflect clients’ keenness to foster scientific interaction and joint working. That was one driver behind a campus in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, designed by Sheppard Robson and its interiors group ID:SR for science incubator TTP.
TTP brings together scientists in varied disciplines for research projects, and its new building is arranged for optimum collaboration and flexibility, with 15m x 15m modules that can be open or closed labs, flexible space or amenity. ‘As the science challenge changes, [it] adapts,’ Sayers says.
Creating space that’s flexible enough in its architecture, interiors and servicing to accommodate different types of business and science is a ‘constant preoccupation’, he admits: ‘Businesses are volatile, so the flexibility has to accommodate growth and shrinking and sometimes acquisition, much more than in a classic office occupation.’
Decisions need to be made on how far to ‘front load’ the building, with infrastructure such as gas lines. That’s where early discussions with stakeholders are key. ‘The brief is often very complex,’ with tricky competing requirements, Sayers says. ‘Making sure the difficult issues aren’t shied away from is important.'
Life sciences: a sector defined by change
‘The purpose of the science world is to adapt and keep experimenting,’ says Ed Hayden, director and head of life sciences at Scott Brownrigg. ‘We’re constructing buildings whose fabric is designed to last for 50 years, so are trying to give longevity and sustainability in a sector which is constantly changing.’
Long life, loose-fit is essential to the design response, particularly for speculative buildings with multiple tenants, he says.
The practice’s design for the Daubeny Project, for the Oxford Science Park (TOSP), provides 42,000m2 of space in three buildings that are interconnectable and each have space for a café and co-working space at ground level. They can therefore be let to a single tenant, as three HQs or sub-divided for 24 tenancies. Flexibility can also be enhanced by such features as removable wall and floor sections for tenants needing access for large equipment.
Design and build is the common project procurement route, with speculative schemes generally built to shell and core for optimum adaptability and sustainability. ‘It’s slightly different to an office building where you know what’s needed inside,’ says Hayden. ‘Tenants will then adopt a traditional procurement route for internal works and we’ll monitor compliance, being the landlord’s guardians of the fabric, or acting for tenants.’
Scott Brownrigg is working on the 17 Columbus Courtyard office-to-lab conversion in London’s Canary Wharf, and is routinely asked to examine city buildings’ repurposing potential. Often local factors, such as proximity to housing, rule out it out, but the practice is exploring the reuse of redundant retail space in Cambridge as micro-scale ‘urban labs’.
‘Some retail space is well suited to laboratories, as it has high floor loadings and goods yards for deliveries,’ Hayden explains. The latter is a vital but often poorly considered factor in the design of life sciences facilities, he says: ‘If you can’t get an articulated truck to the back of your building safely, it very much limits what science you can do.’
Long life, loose-fit is essential to the design response, particularly for speculative buildings with multiple tenants
Whether new build or refurb, buildings – and their equipment – have a high environmental impact, with a 2023 study by FPS pointing out that labs typically consume five times more energy, for their equivalent floor area, than office blocks. As well as BREEAM Outstanding and WELL certification, Scott Brownrigg is targeting a 40 per cent improvement on Part L of the building regulations for the Eastpoint life sciences campus in Oxford, for client Railpen. A fabric-first approach, including self-shading facades to limit solar gain, and rooftop photovoltaics, are being deployed to realise that aim.
Environmental and financial costs could become even bigger design priorities. ‘The economics of delivering these buildings has got harder,’ says Savills’ Mellows. ‘Build costs have gone up and commercial real estate values have dropped, so developing schemes’ viability has got more challenging.’ That is prompting Savills to work with developers to, Slupek says, ‘challenge some of the commonly accepted norms for laboratory buildings and reflect on necessity and value over convention.
‘More knowledge has been gained in the sector to know where compromises can be made,’ she says. ‘It’s a constantly evolving picture.’