University of Oxford Life and Mind Building

University of Oxford Research Laboratories

Why This Project Matters

The Life and Mind Building brings together experimental psychology, biology and the Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research. It has been designed to support work on major global challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, mental health, food security and antimicrobial resistance.

The building includes highly specialised laboratories, controlled environments, rooftop greenhouses, sleep labs, brain scanning rooms, flight labs and the university’s herbarium, which houses around one million specimens.

Specialist VAV Fume Cupboards

Clean Air’s Contribution to Safe, Efficient and Accessible Research

Clean Air’s fume cupboard package was selected to support safe, efficient and accessible laboratory operation. The High Performance Radius Profile fume cupboards provide strong containment for demanding research environments, while VAV technology helps reduce unnecessary extract volume by adjusting airflow to match sash position.

Five rise-and-fall height-adjustable VAV fume cupboards support equitable access for students, researchers and academics. The specialist radio-isotope fume cupboard includes a stainless steel chamber, while the rear-mounted fume scrubber and fume cupboard provide additional fume treatment for applications requiring enhanced fume management.

Laboratory Fume Cupboard Installation

The Fume Cupboard Package

Clean Air supplied, installed and commissioned a total of 22 specialist fume cupboards for the Life and Mind Building. The package combined standard and height-adjustable VAV units with specialist systems for radioisotope work and enhanced fume treatment.

• 13 x 1500 mm High Performance Radius Profile VAV Fume Cupboards
• 5 x 1500 mm High Performance Radius Profile Height-Adjustable VAV Fume Cupboards
• 2 x 1200 mm High Performance Radius Profile VAV Fume Cupboards
• 1 x 1500 mm High Performance Radius Profile Radio-Isotope Fume Cupboard with stainless steel chamber
• 1 x 1500 mm High Performance Radius Profile Rear-Mounted Fume Scrubber and Fume Cupboard

Energy-Efficient VAV Fume Cupboards

Supporting Sustainability and Building Performance

LaMB was designed to Passivhaus principles and achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating, with a fabric-first approach, self-learning controls and an airtightness figure of 1.5 m3/hr/m2 @ 50 Pa.

Clean Air VAV fume cupboards support this low-energy approach by reducing the volume of conditioned air extracted from the laboratory when the sash is lowered. In a highly serviced research building, this helps reduce energy demand and associated carbon emissions while maintaining safe containment.

Award-Winning Laboratory Development

Award Recognition for the Life and Mind Building

The Life and Mind Building received four honours at the 2026 Construction News and Property Week Life Sciences, Tech & Research Clusters Awards:

• Project of the Year
• Best New Campus Development
• Sustainability & Environmental Impact
• Innovative Lab Space Solutions

The project was also named Project of the Year at the 2025 OxProp Awards, recognising the building’s design quality, sustainability performance and contribution to life sciences research.

Laboratory Project Outcomes

The Outcome: Research Infrastructure Built for the Future

The Life and Mind Building demonstrates how advanced laboratory infrastructure can support research excellence, improved accessibility and lower-energy building performance within one of the UK’s most significant new science facilities.

Clean Air’s high-performance VAV fume cupboards, height-adjustable accessible units and specialist fume treatment systems form part of the building’s technical backbone, providing the safe, efficient containment needed to support research and discovery at the University of Oxford for years to come.