Sector: Retail pharmacy
Location: Brent Cross, London, England
Size: 85 m²
Status: Completed Q2 2022
InnoDez UK delivered a compact MEP engineering and energy package for an 85 m² pharmacy inside Brent Cross Shopping Centre. The brief called for quiet, stable environmental conditions at the sales edge, reliable cold-chain power for vaccine fridges, compliant ventilation for a small back-of-house prep area, and fully concealed services at the shopfront. The team produced coordinated Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing design and engineering that supports day-to-day dispensing while meeting landlord rules on risers, noise and fire interfaces.
Create a calm retail area with even temperatures under strong task lighting, provide robust uninterrupted power for refrigeration and automated dispensing, and maintain clean air and good pressure relationships between the public counter, dispensary and storage. Keep the ceiling line tidy with no visible grilles in the fascia, and hand over simple controls plus sub-metering so the operator can monitor baseload and night presentation.
Mechanical: High-efficiency heat-pump VRF with heat recovery sized to internal gains. Fresh air via a compact DOAS with energy recovery and CO₂-based demand control. Low-velocity linear slots near the shopfront to avoid draughts; returns via concealed shadow-gap grilles.
Plumbing: Hot and cold services to hand-wash and prep sinks, point-of-use heater for rapid hot water, backflow protection to the appropriate risk category, trapped floor wastes in wet zones, and condensate routing to accessible gullies.
Electrical: New distribution board with spare capacity and sub-metering for HVAC, lighting, small power and refrigeration. Dedicated clean circuits for pharmacy fridges with local indication, surge protection and RCDs to BS 7671. Small UPS for POS and dispensing terminals to ride through short outages.
Controls & energy: Three modes (trading / clean-down / closed), night setback on temperature and airflow, timed lighting scenes and trend points for CO₂ and temperature to support seasonal tuning and audit trails.
Services were routed only through designated landlord risers to protect smoke zones and signage lines. The shallow ceiling zone drove a split strategy: the DOAS remains in back-of-house while slim linear slots serve the counter and customer edge. Fire alarm and emergency lighting interfaces were captured in an interface schedule for centre management and Building Control. Background noise targets at the counter and dispensary were met with lined ductwork, flexible connectors and correctly sized attenuators.
Designed and documented to UK regulations and typical landlord standards: Part L (energy), Part F (ventilation), Part B (fire), Part M (access), BS 7671 (electrical), BS 5839 (fire detection) and BS 5266 (emergency lighting). Fresh-air rates and pressure relationships were set to suit small pharmacy operations; cold-chain sockets were labelled and tested with alarm verification during commissioning.
Stable indoor conditions at the sales edge with low background noise.
Verified cold-chain resilience for vaccine fridges with clean dedicated circuits and UPS support for controls.
Reduced electricity use versus the outgoing unit through heat recovery, demand-controlled ventilation, LED lighting and sub-metering-led tuning.
Clear O&M pack, a one-page user guide, and a seasonal checklist for staff.