Adding insultation (rockwool) thickness in floor and ceiling from 190mm to 370mm of rockwool would increase carbon by 6 kgCO2/m2.

Prefabrication in factories (off-site construction) is often thought of as a panacea, a sure-fire way for construction sites to achieve greater productivity.However, factories can also be run inefficiently, and if traditional construction methods are simply shifted into a factory setting, the benefits of MMC can be diluted or lost..

In some cases, building off-site in a factory may even be less efficient than on-site construction.For example, prefabricated 3D modules (used in modular construction) involve many additional costs compared to conventional build.These include transportation (a pre-fabricated room is mostly air, after all) and heavy plant for lifting modules into place.

Unless modules are fabricated on a just-in time basis they also have to be stored which costs money, especially if that storage needs to be sheltered from the elements.3D modules also occupy large amounts of factory floor space and therefore absorb a high proportion of factory overheads..

If these additional modular construction costs can be offset by large improvements in construction site efficiency, for example by relocating wet trades or complex specialist trades away from the site, a 3D module might make sense.

But, with modular construction, it’s often the case that prefabricating comparatively simple parts of a building as 3D modules adds cost and complexity, especially if the required trades need to be present on-site anyway..A successful lab must be designed with heavy involvement from the client and user team to remove all doubts and uncertainties.

Therefore, we allow for many meetings, and keep detailed notes.We make sure that the processes are understood by the entire team so the functional spaces can be determined to enable flow and adjacency diagrams to be created.

And we keep this visual representation of the lab through to service requirement drawings and zoning diagrams.. To learn more about our Design to Value approach to design and construction, sign up for our monthly newsletter here:.http://bit.ly/BWNewsUpdatesPlatforms in Practice (September 2023).