Adapting use cases and flexible design
“Highstreets were struggling long before COVID-19 hit. But it has accelerated the collapse or retreat of many big occupiers.
Some, like Debenhams or John Lewis, were anchor tenants and had the large units to match.
Is there not an opportunity to re-imagine these shopping centres and large vacant retail units, turning them into homes for R&D-intensive businesses?” suggested one person.
Agreeing, another attendee said: “I’d like to see R&D buildings made more open to the public, rather than being secret silos.
GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratories, University of Nottingham
Everyone agreed that this last point was key for any city looking to combine urban regeneration with growing the knowledge economy.
The need to design and build spaces that can adapt to different use cases, or macro-challenges such as coronavirus, was also hailed as important.
"We used to talk about the triple helix (academia, industry and government) partnership as being key to a successful innovation district or quarter. That thinking has now moved on. A quadruple helix model, with engaged citizens as the core and most important stakeholders, has emerged as the exemplar for successful R&D-led placemaking."
The Max Planck Society’s laboratories, in Germany, were raised as an example of re-configurable spaces:
“They’re essentially based around a concrete shell with rooms which you re-configure. They’re very, very flexible.
This kind of versatility might be important when committing to building expensive R&D space in a post-COVID world, when use cases might need to adapt almost overnight.”
The University of Birmingham’s Collaborative Teaching Laboratory (CTL), built by Morgan Sindall Construction, was highlighted as a flexible innovation and teaching space closer to home.
“One of the drivers behind the CTL, was the desire to co-locate distinct but complementary research specialisms – a wide range including engineering, mathematics and biosciences. The rationale was for greater collaboration leading to faster breakthroughs and better science.
“But one of the other factors is simply it’s more economical – and that’s an important consideration for any university. The labs are vital, but their overall utilisation can be low when spread out across campus. The case for bringing them together under one building is incredibly strong – it saves on cost and, crucially, operational energy use.”
