TurnKey Modular Vivarium Design By Meg Wilson November/December 2006
The Modular Laboratory Solution: What’s Similar, What’s Unique, and
What’s New
The use of modular turnkey building technologies in higher-end construction
applications, such has MRI facilities, dialysis clinics, research laboratories,
BSL3 diagnostic and research facilities, and vivariums, has increased dramatically
over the past five years. Building materials, processes, and the knowledge
and experience with the specialized laboratory mechanical, electrical, plumbing,
control and security systems, and integrated equipment have all steadily improved
for the experienced custom modular laboratory manufacturer. Modular animal
research facilities have successfully proven their capability to protect valuable
animal research by weathering severe hurricane seasons, they are 100% code
compliant, and have met NIH requirements to support research for more than
20 years. These capabilities lead the turnkey modular solution to emerge as
a viable, reliable, permanent, or shorter-term solution for some laboratory
animal research and general laboratory or BSL3 research requirements. Permanent
modular vivariums are sufficiently widespread to offer comprehensive references
and site visit opportunities from leading specialized builders.
Several driving
forces compel consideration of a modular turnkey solution. Time is usually
the critical driving force. A complete turnkey modular vivarium is delivered
research-ready 120 days from receipt of the initial engineering purchase
order to proceed. Other considerations include flexibility of design and the
possibility
to relocate the facility at a later date. Modular construction affords flexibility
to install the facility seamlessly next to an existing facility, as a stand-alone
separate facility (providing for excellent protocol management), inside a
warehouse or large shell structure, or even on top of an existing structure.
Modular
facilities allow for flexible financing alternatives, including leasing as
an alternative to the possible use of operating budgets rather than capital
budgets. Modular vivarium pricing provides firm-fixed project pricing and
project schedules. Unlike renovation projects and certain construction projects
that can vary widely from initial budgets and estimates, modular construction
is a manufactured project delivered to the price indicated that is based on
a firm design agreement. Manufacturing schedules are unaffected by weather
or other subcontractor issues that usually allow for accurate timetables.
Vivarium Design Drivers, Spaces
Vivariums are embedded in the basements of laboratory buildings, built as separate
conventional structures connected to an existing lab building, completely
independent from an existing lab building, or built in any of the ways mentioned
above as a modular turnkey structure. All of these vivarium implementations
share similar design drivers and types of spaces.
2994 SF, four modular units, university NHP research facility.
Modular vivarium
facilities can be simple, one-species facilities.
3264 SF BSL2/BSL3 vivarium research facility.
Modular vivarium campus space
can be attractive.
Design Elements
•
These facilities are fundamentally driven by the care and maintenance of the
laboratory animals and design is primarily based on the Guide for the Care
and Use of Laboratory Animals, AAALAC International Facilities Planning Volume
2, Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) Institutional Animal Care and
Use Committee Guidebook, and the BMBL, among other resources.
• Maintenance
of tight environmental control avoids the introduction of contaminants or pathogens
into the research environment and prevents infectious outbreaks. In addition,
many facilities today are built to prevent the release of pathogens outside
the research environment as well as the transmission of odors and noise. This
is accomplished through high-performance HVAC and building systems and specific
architectural characteristics. • Basic design must promote cleanliness
and maintainability.
• Circulation is organized to permit controlled
flows of people, animals, material supplies, and waste. The facility must be
able to maintain and adapt environmental control within spaces and between
circulation paths to avoid contamination and infection.
• Cage sizing
and cage systems are both species-dependent and governed by the standards set
forth in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Caging selection
affects room sizes, room environment, and air circulation patterns, possibly
flooring requirements, drain locations, cage wash requirements and more.
•
Animal research requires a heightened sensitivity to security concerns, setbacks,
protocols, confidentiality, and methods to prevent intrusions.
• These
facilities are required to run 24/7 without failure, downtime, or disruption.
Maintenance must be accessible and generally redundant.
Spaces within the Vivarium
Laboratory animal facilities have some very specific space requirements along
with general laboratory space requirements.
•
Animal holding rooms that accommodate caging, bedding change stations, and sinks.
They may be individual rooms accessed from a corridor system or multiple rooms
organized around self-contained suites. In addition, they may be smaller housing
rooms utilized by 1–2 investigators or large rooms housing many animals
per room. Each has unique traffic and air flow challenges.
• Procedure
rooms used for animal research and care need to be near the animal holding
rooms. Access for researchers and animals in and out of procedure space is
a critical
design-flow element. • Cage wash and cage storage, and general storage
may include rack washers, tunnel washers, pass-through autoclaves for sterilization,
bedding dispensers and dump stations, and bottle washing and filling stations.
Ample storage space is crucial.
•
Dedicated receiving dock and quarantine areas may be required for animal activities.
These would be located distant from the primary animal holding area and would
include an isolated animal holding area for incoming animals to be held and
tested before being introduced into the population.
•
Veterinary care lab and care functions, such as surgery, clinical chemistry,
and histology.
•
Necropsy/perfusion is an area used for post-mortem procedures on animals and
should be distant from clean areas.
•
Showers, airlocks, locker areas, and pass-through autoclaves all provide for
movement of clean and dirty people and articles in and out of the facility
to separate the controlled animal care environment from the external environment.
•
Office space
• Staff support areas
•
Mechanical/ electrical equipment spaces, in most facilities, are desirable
to locate these so they are accessible without entering the animal facility
space.
•
Corridors receive heavy traffic both in the amount and in the actual weight
of equipment in an animal facility. Floors and walls should be able to handle
heavy abusive traffic and protected from cage movement. Corridors should be
wide enough to easily accommodate cage movement.
Mechanical, Electrical, and Control Systems
The overall MEP design is governed by the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory
Animals and the ASHRAE Handbook. The HVAC system is the primary system
that regulates air flow, air cleanliness,
temperature, humidity, odor transmission, and containment. Air changes per
hour can range from 10 ACH to greater than 20, averaging 15 ACH. Prevailing
air quality combined with species census, caging type, and caging density
are primary drivers of air flow requirements. Careful consideration must
be given
to redundancy and backup for maintaining the critical operations of the HVAC
system and sustaining animal life. Electrical systems also require careful
consideration regarding reliable power, redundancy, and back-up. Building automation
systems (BAS) generally use direct digital controls (DDC) monitors and control
the HVAC system. Most experienced modular vivarium builders will employ a BAS
that can be tied directly into the main laboratory or main vivarium system
for seamless integration, control, and monitoring, or remote monitoring via
the web or other remote access.
Vivarium Planning
Modular facilities provide unique solutions to specific situations; however,
planning remains critical. Whether built traditionally or using modular technology,
all projects must begin with the needs of the users and follow a complete planning
process to ensure integrated, long-term facility results.
Strategic and master planning are often completed at a high level and without
regard for unanticipated needs that may arise and must be filled quickly.
Often, modular facilities are not part of strategic and master planning
that can only
result in inadequate infrastructure and poor site placement when these needs
do arise. Strategic and master plans should consider scenarios that require
space more rapidly than planned and allow for alternatives using modular
designs to
meet critical requirements.
Programming is the development of the specific
requirements of a project. Programming for either a traditional or modular
vivarium should
include the same rigorous steps to clearly define the functional space,
the physical requirements, and the initial budget.
Programming should begin
with a clear definition
of the work activities to be performed. In the case of a vivarium, initial
questions include the species and the size of the species, whether
there is one or multiple
species in the vivarium; the type of animal housing used, the pathogens
used
and the form of the pathogen; and the specific research being conducted.
Adequate programming will clearly delineate functional requirements
and relationships
of occupant activities and spaces required for all supporting building
requirements and equipment.
During the programming phase it needs to be clear
if the facility
will be a barrier facility or a containment facility. Barrier facilities
may work with immuno-compromised animals or near an unprotected group
of the same
species and must operate under positive pressure to keep contaminants
out. Sophisticated control and monitoring systems and equipment achieves
closely controlled and regulated air pressures and air flows. Containment facilities
work with potentially infectious agents and operate under negative pressure
to prevent escape of air into the general environment. Often waste and effluents
are separately contained and treated.
It may be at this stage that the type
of delivery method, modular or traditional, will be determined. However,
if the project is critically time-driven from the start and the modular alternative
is a primary solution alternative, a knowledgeable and experienced specialized
modular vivarium manufacturer can guide clients through this programming phase
with an eye to the critical unique design factors of a modular vivarium design.
This single step, single supplier process will save both considerable time
and money for the overall project.
Modular solutions do require different considerations
for site preparation. Will the modular buildings ever be relocated? Is the
site level? Is there unique or constrained access to the site that will require
craning the buildings into place? What affect will the arrival and installation
of the buildings have on traffic and ongoing activities?
11,628 SF multi-species facility designed for a major southern university,
with cage wash and ample procedure space. Modular Facilities can meet
complex
vivarium requirements.
Unique Aspects of Modular Turnkey Vivarium Design
For modular turnkey vivarium facilities design and engineering are required
but simplified. Floor plans describing specific functional requirements along
with HVAC systems designed to support the specific needs of each facility
are still required. Assembly documents replace the traditional contract documents
for bricks and mortar facilities. These services are generally provided directly
from the modular supplier and included in the turnkey facility pricing.
While
all of the basic steps, requirements, codes, and best practices developed
in traditional vivarium design apply to modular design and engineering,
there are some unique considerations for modular design that do not apply in
traditional
design. Therefore, there is modification to a stick-built design required
in order to make it work as well as a modular designed, manufactured, and
installed vivarium plan. This is one more reason the earlier the decision
is made to move in the modular direction and an experienced modular vivarium
manufacturer is selected, the better the overall design will meet all of
the criteria necessary.
Unique considerations for modular design include:
•
“Modularization” for optimal transport of the units. Once the total
space is programmed based on the species, the caging, the work to be performed,
the pathogens, and the people, the modular manufacturer will consider the location
and the transportation plan to define the optimal single unit size in order to
divide the total facility into transportable units. Understanding transportation
limits in each state, installation issues at the site, and potential traffic
flow issues are all important considerations to make the best cost trade-offs
in this decision.
• “Modularization” for optimal manufacture of the units.
Without compromising the importance of both the programming and function of
the facility, an experienced manufacturer will define the most cost-effective
manufacturing plan into the design of the modular units.
• “Modularization” for
future plans for the units. The manufacturer will consider the clients long-term
plans and ANY possibility at all of moving the units in the future in the original
design of the units.
The modular manufacturer’s drawings should provide
the loads and utility connections required for the site foundation and preparation
drawings to be completed. Close coordination of the site development is critical
to ensuring that the project comes together properly and on time. Frequently,
the modular units are ready before the site is complete. This is driven both
by the fact that construction of the manufactured facility is not negatively
impacted by weather conditions and site work managers are not actually seeing
the manufactured units making progress during the manufacturing process and
can assume progress is moving slowly.
9000 SF rodent facility at a California university completed in 2005.
Creative
solutions to gain interior ceiling height have included this roof-top
duct
work at UC Irvine.
Modular vivarium projects are smaller
on average than site-built vivarium projects. A modular animal facility might
be 3500–5000 SF on average while a site built vivarium might be 25,000–80,000
SF. Transportation limitations and the generally smaller size of the projects
create distinct design and manufacturing challenges for the modular vivarium
manufacturer. With few exceptions, modular floor to ceiling heights are limited
to 8’ and the total height of the building for transportation cannot
exceed 14’6”. This provides ample space for the actual work and
cage movement inside the building but it does lead to a very tight interstitial
space for the plumbing and electrical duct run above the ceiling. Mechanical
rooms are often set as separate small rooms or even buildings accessed from
the outside to make maintenance of major equipment systems fairly easy. Design
must be carefully laid out, drawings accurate, and manufacturing carefully executed.
Considerable discussion has occurred in lab planning circles regarding challenges
of smaller containment or HVAC intensive facilities. GRG, Inc. reported at
the 2005 Biocontainment Tradeline Conference that for smaller facilities,
total project
time decreases significantly and engineering time decreases relatively. For
facilities requiring strong HVAC and security control, this increases risk.
They also reported
that the cost of the MEP equipment as a percent of the total building cost
rose dramatically for smaller facilities. While this will certainly be
more exaggerated
for BSL3 buildings than for animal holding facilities, the trend will be shared
by both. With these factors in mind, as well as the value of the animals and
the research conducted in these facilities, careful selection of experienced
suppliers is critical.
What’s New?
A variety of emerging research directions and emerging building technologies
are influencing the design of vivarium facilities:
• Totally wiring facilities for communications, voice, data, wireless,
integrating computers on delivery and complex basic office systems are common.
•
Sophisticated lighting systems for animal behavior and research are being designed
upfront more often including red light studies, diurnal cycle controls, or
filtered light for specific studies.
•
Security systems including biometrics, palm readers, retina scanners, card
readers are common.
• Integration of security into tracking systems
allow individually programmed access to certain rooms and detailed tracking
of each individual’s movement within an animal facility.
•
Increased use of continuous effluent decontamination (CED) to contain effluent
waste for higher containment facilities.
•
Integrated gaseous decontamination methods for room or whole facility decontamination.
•
New research directions are driving the use of new species, such as zebrafish
and frogs, influencing facility design requirements.
Summary
The animal research facility, the vivarium, is a specifically designed building
type that accommodates a highly controlled environment for the care and maintenance
of laboratory animals. Animal research and animal research facilities are
critical to the biomedical research endeavor. Modular animal research facilities
have emerged as a viable alternative solution when time is crucial to meeting
research goals and objectives. Regardless of the method of delivery, careful
planning and design are critical to success. Choosing experienced partners
in the design, engineering, and build — modular or otherwise — of
a vivarium facility is a must.
• Stark, Stanley, James Petitto. “Animal
Research Facility,” Whole Buildings Design Guide, 2006.
•
Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals by the National Research Council/National
Academy of Sciences, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, Commission on
Life Science. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1996.
