Laboratory consultancy

Creating laboratory facilities that inspire and connect

With the acquisition of the consultancy Abell Nepp, our laboratory designers bring a wealth of expertise to projects, informed by decades of experience delivering some of the most complex yet human-scale research facilities to world-leading clients.

We provide consultation, planning and design services on laboratories through all stages. We pride ourselves on collaborating closely with the scientific users to deliver buildings that meet their needs for today whilst anticipating future adaptations. As well as working directly for science clients, we continue to work for lead architects as well as other engineering consultancies.

From design concept to delivery to peer review and post-occupancy evaluation, our laboratory consultants can provide the support required at each stage. We are also able to draw on Buro Happold’s deep experience of integrated engineering and design knowledge from a wide range of projects around the world.

Areas of expertise

Laboratory planning

Our clients operate in fast-moving areas of scientific research demanding laboratories which incorporate the latest technologies. As well as requiring practical, efficient and adaptable facilities they must also be aspirational and integrate into well-designed buildings. As the leading laboratory planning specialist in the UK, we engage with our science clients to develop and refine the design vision, strategic options, detailed briefs, concept design and technical detailing.

Our project types include biomedical, chemical, bioengineering, engineering and physics disciplines for research plus diagnostic and clinical research laboratories. Projects under construction or recently completed include Imperial College London’s Uren Biomedical Engineering Research Hub, AstraZeneca’s Discovery Centre (DISC) in Cambridge, MRC’s London Institute of Medical Sciences, the Royal Free / UCL Pears Building and UCB’s new Windlesham Campus.

A key aspect of our service is working with the client’s user representatives to develop suites of laboratories that meets their scientific needs over time. As well as for the scientists that will occupy the new building, the design brief must address the mid-term scientific mission and the long-term institutional requirements. Often working closely with the lead architect, we translate the scientific vision and technical requirements for the design team and communicate the design aspirations and proposals to the scientists.

As large consumers of energy and resources, sustainability and considerations of costs in use are more important than ever. We work with the client to challenge energy use, water consumption and laboratory waste, encouraging the use of low energy systems, equipment, sustainable materials.

We maintain a database of space metrics of UK science buildings and with our detailed personal knowledge of many of the projects recorded, we can utilise the data to benchmark the designs with others in the industry thereby providing further confidence to the client of their project requirements. This has proved to be a valuable resource to clients as a conversational tool as much as for statistical comparison. The database also acts as an evidence-based tool for project decision-makers, enabling them to reduce risk by making more informed considerations.

Laboratory design consulting

With several decades of experience in the science sector, our involvement is strategic, creative and collaborative. We often begin evaluating the existing development, seeking out the top scientific and campus priorities, studying options to rationalise, reorganise and rejuvenate and then communicate the developed vision to the client.

Our most successful projects can often be traced back to robust multidisciplinary feasibility studies that captured our client’s aspirations, anticipated future requirements and explored alternatives, set against considered project costs and risks.

We also provide independent consultation to clients and contractors on design concepts, laboratory layouts and technical designs. One such example includes acting as the science areas advisor to the main contractor, Laing O’Rourke, during their construction of the Francis Crick Institute.

We are experienced in offering peer review services for clients and contractors, providing an independent and objective ‘second set of eyes’ on their project. These reviews can look at any aspect of the project from base assumptions, appropriate designs, completeness of technical documentation and value engineering alternatives. We understand the sensitivities inherent to a peer review and present our findings openly and constructively.

Our laboratory consultancy services include


  • Laboratory briefing
  • Masterplanning and development vision
  • Feasibility studies
  • Concept design and optioneering
  • Spatial coordination with the design team
  • Contributing to the Employers Requirement document
  • Comparative benchmarking and space metrics
  • Technical design and consultation
  • Peer reviews of laboratory design
  • Energy resource considerations

Project highlights

AstraZeneca Discovery Centre (DISC)

Cambridge, UK

In the role of laboratory planning consultant since the project commenced in 2014, Chris Abell and Bruce Nepp continue to provide services to AstraZeneca. On the £750m DISC building, they also assisted architects Herzog & de Meuron and BDP to bring together AstraZeneca’s small molecule/biologics research and development divisions providing a key point of scientific exchange and collaboration in the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and community.

Here, deep floor plates enable the building to be organised around a Cambridge College-scale central court with the building limited to three stories above ground, providing a human scale for over 2,000 occupants. The large floor plates support transparent laboratory blocks of adaptable modular laboratories surrounded by open write-up, meeting and collaboration spaces.

The porous building encourages collaboration with public circulation through the site and courtyard with science-on-display in street-level laboratories.

The Michael Uren Biomedical Engineering Hub

London, UK

For Imperial College London, the £90m Michael Uren Biomedical Engineering Hub is a new purpose-built facility for life-changing research into new and affordable medical technology, helping people affected by a diverse range of medical conditions. Richard Walder and team provided laboratory design and full engineering services to the Lead Architect, Allies and Morrison. The BREEAM Excellent accredited building incorporates a mixture of laboratory and office space for interdisciplinary, translational research initiatives at the interface of biomedical sciences and engineering.

Planned as generic laboratory layouts until specific research groups were identified during later design and construction stages, the building has proved adaptable incorporating nanotechnology facilities with cleanrooms, musculoskeletal research clinics, dementia research, and other laboratory typologies.

Our response prioritises simple yet effective ‘passive measures’, such as high standards of daylight and efficient MEP systems, before considering more complex and expensive technologies.