Research Facilities
Laboratory and research buildings for independent research institutions, organised around test equipment, safety zoning and phased expansion.
Independent research institutions test equipment and materials before they reach production scale. The building has to serve instruments and safety requirements that shift with every research programme.
Since 2009, the office has designed laboratory and research buildings for SINTEF in Trondheim and delivered a national engineering research complex in Portugal. Zoning for personnel safety, integration of specialised technical services, and the capacity to expand one test programme without disrupting another, carry across every laboratory scale.
What we deliver
Complete laboratory design from feasibility through construction documentation. SINTEF Torgard in Trondheim was delivered for SINTEF and NTNU between 2021 and 2025. An engine laboratory tests alternative fuels and emerging technologies, with personnel safety at the centre of the layout. An adjoining workshop hall was converted into a structural laboratory for testing large elements.
Why it matters
A test facility changes its equipment and its research programme more often than a production line changes its process. The building has to absorb that change without a rebuild. Service integration, expandable floor plans and zoning between test cells and social areas keep a laboratory usable as its programme develops.
International research infrastructure
The National Laboratory for Engineering and Industrial Technology in Paco do Lumiar, Portugal, was delivered as a Portuguese-Norwegian government cooperation project. The office has designed laboratory and research buildings for SINTEF in Trondheim since 2009.
Standards and safety
Facilities that handle fuels, high-pressure systems or full-scale test loads are designed around personnel safety as a structural requirement, not an add-on. Lab cells, support systems and social zones are separated and independently serviced, so a change in one test programme does not compromise another.
