Types of Facility We Build
The environments where science and care happen
Every facility we deliver is regulated, technically demanding and shaped around the people who work in it. Here are the environments we build most.
Types of Facility We Build
The environments where science and care happen
Every facility we deliver is regulated, technically demanding and shaped around the people who work in it. Here are the environments we build most.
Life Sciences Facilities
Laboratories built to accreditation
Compliant, scalable environments for research, diagnostics and manufacturing – delivered from feasibility through to ISO accreditation and start-up.
Research & Development Laboratories
Flexible wet and dry lab space for biotech and research teams, engineered so capacity and layout can grow with the science.
Explore Facility
Diagnostic & Pathology Laboratories
High-throughput testing environments built to ISO 17025 and ISO 15189, ready for the validation and accreditation each discipline requires.
Explore Facility
Cleanrooms & Controlled Environments
Classified spaces with the precise air handling, pressure regimes and finishes needed for contamination-critical work.
Explore Facility
Containment Laboratories
Biosafety-rated laboratories with the containment, services and detailing required to work safely with biological material.
Explore Facility
Space Conversions
Retail, office and industrial buildings transformed into world-class scientific complexes where lab-ready space is scarce.
Explore Facility
Lab Support & Write-up Spaces
The offices, cold storage, plant and write-up areas that surround the bench and keep a laboratory running efficiently.
Explore Facility
Not on the list? We regularly deliver hybrid and one-off facilities. If your project sits somewhere between these types, the same disciplined process applies — feasibility, design, build and certify, under a single point of accountability.
Healthcare Facilities
Clinical spaces ready to treat patients
Private-care environments shaped around patient flow and clinician workflow – delivered with medical M&E, infection-control detailing and CQC-ready handover.
GP Surgeries
Primary-care practices planned around efficient patient flow, from waiting areas and reception to consulting and treatment rooms.
Explore Facility
Dental Practices
Modern dental suites with the services, decontamination and infection-control detailing that clinical dentistry demands.
Explore Facility
Ophthalmic & Laser Eye Clinics
Specialist clinics built for precise environmental control and the equipment that laser and ophthalmic procedures rely on.
Explore Facility
Cosmetic & Minor-Procedure Suites
Treatment suites detailed for minor surgical and cosmetic procedures, balancing clinical compliance with a considered patient experience.
Explore Facility
Specialist Consulting Rooms
Consulting and examination rooms configured for the specific discipline, ready for clinicians to see patients from day one.
Explore Facility
Clinic Refurbishments
Upgrading and reconfiguring existing practices to meet current standards while keeping disruption to running clinics to a minimum.
Explore Facility
Not on the list? We regularly deliver hybrid and one-off facilities. If your project sits somewhere between these types, the same disciplined process applies — feasibility, design, build and certify, under a single point of accountability.
Facilities we build FAQs
What type of labs do you build?
We build many types of laboratories, including forensics, diagnostics, genomics, DNA, quarantine and environmental control rooms. We also build laboratories bespoke to client specifications and needs, so if your project combines multiple laboratory types, or is a type we have not built before, we can often handle that too. Our work takes several forms: new build and greenfield sites, office-to-laboratory conversions, remodelling of an existing facility, and “box within a box” installations inside a building you already occupy.
What do I need to think about when I design a facility?
Start with the question behind the project: why are you building? A larger site, improved transport links, a better location for recruitment and optics, or simply more capacity. That answer is the cornerstone of the design, and everything else is fed into it. From there, four things shape the brief:
- End user requirements. Head count, laboratory throughput, the number of laboratories, and the specification each one needs for temperature, pressure and containment. Also the ratio of office to laboratory workers, and how much time laboratory staff actually spend at a desk, which is routinely underestimated.
- Budget and site location. Your expected budget, and whether you stay local or relocate further afield for cheaper land rates. The trade-off between land cost and staff retention is usually the biggest single decision in the brief.
- Regulatory outcome. The accreditation or registration you need on day one (ISO 17025, ISO 15189, CQC, a governing-body licence), and what it demands of the building.
- Services and scalability. Extraction, laboratory gases, DI water, power and data density, drainage, and the plant space and floor loading to carry them, sized for where you expect to be rather than where you are.
Our Design & Innovation stage exists to settle all of this in detail before anything is built, and to return to design if your requirements change mid-build.
How do you build a laboratory with scalability in mind?
There are several routes, and the right one depends on how confident you are about growth and how much capital you want to commit now:
- Buy larger than you need and fit out in full. A Cat C fit-out of the whole building, designed with the capacity to take more equipment later. More space-efficient layouts become available, and laboratory benching can be reconfigured rather than rebuilt.
- Buy larger and fit out in stages. Cat C fit-out of the part of the building you need initially, with the remainder left at Cat A and brought into use as you grow. Lower capital exposure now, and a shorter second programme later.
- Design for reconfiguration either way. Demountable partitioning and serviced bench systems rather than fixed joinery, plant and risers sized with spare capacity, and power and data density planned above current demand.
We also record the reconfiguration route in the handover documentation, so your facilities team knows what can be moved later and what cannot.
Is it better to build a new laboratory on an existing site or as a new build?
Neither is better in principle; the answer comes out of a feasibility study. Converting or extending an existing site is usually faster and cheaper to start, keeps you close to your existing team and service, and carries a stronger sustainability case, but it is constrained by structure, floor loading, plant capacity, floor-to-ceiling height, landlord and planning limits, and by working alongside a live operation.
New land means a blank slate you can design entirely around your own requirements. But land is expensive and premium sites are hard to find, so converting a brownfield building is often preferable. If the building is in good condition it can mean a cheaper build, because the structural elements are already in place, and it can make the design stage easier: a set of fixed constraints is often more productive than an open field. In our experience the decision turns on plant capacity and headroom in the existing building. Where those are adequate, conversion usually wins.
What are the benefits of building my own laboratory instead of renting existing space?
Rented laboratory space is quick to occupy and light on capital, and for an early-stage programme that can be the right call. Building your own makes sense when any of the following matter:
- Your workflow does not fit a generic laboratory fit-out. In rented laboratories the M&E is usually fixed, which imposes a layout the landlord expects you to work around rather than one built for your processes.
- You need an accreditation in your own name, with the building evidence behind it.
- You expect to grow, and want the expansion route designed in rather than renegotiated.
- You want long-run cost certainty rather than exposure to rent review and service-charge inflation, and no risk of losing the site at the end of a lease.
- Your equipment is heavy, fixed or highly serviced, which makes a later move expensive.
- You want the spend to sit on your own balance sheet as a long-term investment in the business.
The middle path, converting leased shell space to your own specification, is common in UK life sciences, and is one of the things we are asked to do most often.
Have a facility in mind?
Tell us about your project and we’ll recommend the right delivery model and route to an accredited, operational facility.