New laboratory building for advanced research

2024 marks the opening of our specially designed, state-of-the-art laboratory building for advanced research and medical development.

LABORATORY BUILDING B407

Creating the future

Like other functions within Medicon Village, the new lab building is vital to the idea of promoting medical research as envisioned by the Mats Paulsson Foundation for Research, Innovation and Societal Development.

This vision is being realised in part through the innovation-enabling environment at Medicon Village, and in part through grants given by the foundation to initiatives that promote human health and better lives. These grants have totalled nearly 100 million SEK since the foundation’s inception up to and including 2023.

The contribution to human flourishing is a natural component of any endeavour in the field of life science. This is especially apparent at Medicon Village, an environment characterised by collaboration, innovation, development, and growth – all to benefit human health and improve people’s lives. With the opening of the specially designed lab building we have added a space where the future is being born and where human flourishing gets to thrive.

Specially designed lab building

In our latest lab building, B407, researchers are offered a state-of-the-art environment that meets operational requirements for cutting-edge technology, safety, and stability.

The facility has been designed by architects specialising in laboratory environments, and in close dialogue with tenants. This has made it possible to create work environments not only for today’s requirements and needs, but also for adapting to the needs of future tenants in step with new ideas and trends in the field.

Construction of the 12,500 m² building was carried out in accordance with the requiruements for environmental sustainability as set forth in the “Miljöbyggnad” certification scheme by the Swedish Green Building Council. The construction process and building meet the requirements for a Silver rating, and the energy supply, a Gold rating. The latter is due in part to the installation of solar panels on the roof and an innovative and award-winning energy system. Common areas and individual premises are adapted for optimal accessibility.

Highest demands on reliability

The activities conducted at Medicon Village are sensitive to external circumstances such as power outages, insufficient ventilation, and ensuring high availability for prioritised technology*.

Critical technical functions required for day-to-day operations are fail-safe and have backup power, ventilation, and gas supply systems, such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide, as well as centralised clean water, vacuum, and compressed air systems.

Naturally, all of this exists in the laboratory building. Ensuring that all the functions required by tenants’ activities can be satisfied at every given moment, regardless of potential external disturbances, was a fundamental prerequisite.

Redundant capacity

The laboratory building is connected to the Medicon Village central backup power plant, and prioritised lab equipment is connected to uninterruptible power supply systems.

Additional fail-safe features are the central ventilation systems, which have redundant capacity. This means that operations can continue even if one unit breaks down or needs servicing.

The heating and cooling system also has redundant capacity using two energy solutions. To create a good indoor climate, the offices are equipped with active ventilation devices that are controlled by temperature, presence, and carbon dioxide levels in the air. The laboratories also have zone control to ensure a good working environment, adequate air flow and the right temperature.

*One example is Region Skåne’s biobank, which is situated at Medicon Village and contains over 20 million human tissue samples that can be used for research purposes. As these need to be kept refrigerated or frozen, guaranteed continual electrical supply is a necessity. Medicon Village has a system in place for this, to which the laboratory building is connected.

Balance, store and share energy

The E.ON ectogrid energy system is an innovative heating and cooling system that balances energy flows inside a building and between buildings within a specific area.

In addition to balancing energy flows, the system also ensures that both heating and cooling can be recovered and shared with others. E.ON ectogrid is a closed, low-temperature grid where heat pumps and cooling machines in each building adjust the temperature as needed. In the process, each building sends excess heating or cooling
to other buildings, depending on their needs.

By sharing, balancing, and storing energy in a closed circuit, all available energy flows are used as efficiently as possible before new energy is added. The result is a significant reduction in energy consumption, lower costs, and reduced impact on the environment.

In December of 2023, E.ON ectogrid™ won first prize in the energy efficiency category at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai.

Sustainabilty and well-being

The facility is built on a slope and connects to Medicon Village’s central greenway. Architecturally, its appearance has been adapted to the other buildings in the area both in form and in the choice of materials.

The various rooms are situated around a central stairwell with entrances from both north and south. In the common areas, natural materials such as wood and stone have been used. Interiors have been designed to create a welcoming setting, using warm colours, textile floors in the office areas, natural stone windowsills and abundant natural light. The guiding principles have aimed to blend ecologically sustainable construction techniques with well-being and job satisfaction.

The architects have also collaborated with the building’s tenants to ensure that individual premises are tailored, in various ways, to the activities they are to be used for.

Efficacy and Safety

The laboratory and office spaces have been optimised to ensure the greatest possible efficiency in combination with a work environment where the lab section is separated from the office area.

The floorplan features centrally situated lab areas, with administrative spaces placed along the exterior walls to permit generous amounts of natural light. Internal spaces are structured according to each tenant’s specific workflow, ensuring secure premises that are well-adapted for their purpose. Glass partitions between corridors, laboratories and offices give a feeling of openness that creates community.

Naturally, the focus inside the laboratories is on safety and the work environment. Thus, hygiene and safety requirements have been fundamental to the design. Here, neutral colours have been chosen to create a calm atmosphere in relation to equipment and other furnishings. The result is a laboratory and office environment that is as efficient and safe as it is pleasant and welcoming.

Medicon Village – The all-important context

Today, Medicon Village is the largest research park in Scandinavia with a focus on life science. Behind its strong development is a belief in its fundamental concept – to create an effective mix of companies, academic activities, and support functions where the entire value chain is represented.

Essential to success is the idea of Medicon Village as a gathering place where cross-border meetings take place, both spontaneously and through a structured platform for exchanging knowledge and experience. In fact, the entire area is designed to facilitate meetings and create a sense of belonging, with restaurants, gyms, and other social spaces.

Medicon Village is home to 180 companies and numerous organisations linked to Region Skåne and Lund University. All businesses are offered innovation support initiatives adapted to different phases and needs. SmiLe Incubator is an independent operation at Medicon Village owned by the incubator foundation, STIL. It is an important part of the innovation ecosystem and provides invaluable support for many start-ups from initial idea to commercialisation and growth.

Our members represent every part of the health chain, from prevention and diagnostics to treatment and care. Ensuring a holistic contribution to societal health and wellbeing requires continued expansion and even greater collaboration – regionally, nationally, and internationally. Medicon Village is all about the future.

To work with the non-existent

Medicon Village is all about the future. About products that do not yet exist. About therapies and services that are constantly evolving. And about insights and opportunities.

Lund University has an international profile, with partner universities in nearly 70 countries. The university, the university hospital, and leading research infrastructures such as ESS and MAX IV are key components of the Lund story. They are all closely linked to research parks and business incubators, creating a unique innovation community that combines culture, city life and research within a compact radius of just two kilometres.

This web page tells the story of Medicon Village’s specially designed laboratory building. But it is also a story about a vision that is bigger than the village itself. It’s a vision of the future, of engaging with the yet-to-be, in an environment of unprecedented openness, aimed at fostering a cohesive force for the entire life science ecosystem of the region. It is also one that aims to bolster internationalisation and cross-border collaborations, both in research and commercially. Medicon Village is a young life science park. It feels like we have only just begun. Which is why we have good reason to say: HERE IS WHERE THE FUTURE IS CREATED.

Members in the new lab building