Watch: Professor John Dyson's inaugural lecture at the University of Birmingham – 'In search of treasure and redemption'

Designers can consider the most complex and vast strands of data and options immediately and simultaneously..

In this situation, the government is trying to allow people to go about their business, enabling the economy to grow.At the same time, they’re trying to stop the spread of the disease and protect life.

That’s the outcome and the problem we’re trying to fix..The second important aspect to consider is value itself.In other words, what do you value about the outcome?

When we talk about value, people tend to focus on economic factors like cost and return on investment (ROI).However, value is actually much more than that.

It includes things such as the expected lifetime of components and materials, the wellbeing of the workforce, and the impact on the environment and climate change.

On top of this, there’s the value of aesthetics and how things make us feel, as well as the value derived from doing; the personal development or learning someone might gain as a result of working on a project.A tight or convoluted lab layout may mean disorganised or congested material and personnel flows, adding time to processes or increasing the risk of mix-ups and cross-contamination.

There may be insufficient maintenance space, or a lack of space for collaboration between scientists or analytics and informatics work, which are particularly important in R&D environments and increasingly so with the rise in automation..Regarding flexibility, science and technology are evolving rapidly, which means new processes, equipment, and requirements.

Furthermore, the life science industry is very fast-moving, and businesses are routinely scaling-up or going bust.Flexibility is therefore vital not just for businesses and tenants, but also for developers looking to ensure buildings remain occupied.