How to design a lab: Part 9 of a series of posts

“Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't.” -- Richard Bach (American Writer, author of 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull', b.1936)

Laboratory Design (http://www.labdesignnews.com/) is worth following for up to date information on trends in lab design.  As described in its Web …

Laboratory Design's editorial mission is to provide cutting-edge information on trends and techniques that make these mission-critical buildings more efficient, cost-effective, and functional. Our diverse content, created by experts in the industry, is delivered effectively through Laboratory Design: A concise bi-monthly newsletter covering breaking news, trends, technical articles, new projects, new products, case studies, coming events and more.

Here are excerpts from a couple of recent Laboratory Design articles …

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Modern trends in lab design
Thu, 06/04/2015 - 3:49pm
by  Lindsay Hock, Editor
[EXCERPTS]
Each year, many entries are entered into R&D Magazine’s Laboratory of the Year competition; but only a select few win. However, each entry exhibits trends in modern lab design. From flexibility to sustainability to collaboration, these trends showcase the best design options for lab facilities today and the future.
The state of lab design
In the academic environment, the lack of increased funding from federal resources, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), and state resources has changed the types of environments needed for research. With this change, there’s a greater focus on computational rather than experimental approaches to research, which requires a different type of lab than wet bench science spaces. “While domestically we see the physical research environment changing to cope with the ‘flat-funded’ situation, we have also seen a significant amount of off-shoring of research to countries such as Japan, Ireland and England where investment in experimental research has significantly increased,” says Jeffrey Zynda, Science Practice Leader, Payette. These shifts not only change how, but where research is conducted.
As today’s science is moving at a rapid pace, clients must plan ahead for change from day one. Adapting spaces quickly and easily is a must in the scientific process, and that capacity must be designed into all aspects of a lab. Design features, such as removeable partitions and lab furniture and interchangeable plug-and-play ceiling utility systems, make adapting space easier.
Many research disciplines are seeking a new synergy, where collaboration and interaction between different research groups is promoted to foster technology transfer and knowledge and idea exchange. “This has a bearing on the design of the facility to seek openness within lab settings and provides zones for sharing equipment and spaces that can foster interaction both inside and outside the lab,” says Jones.
With the evolution of science, labs are no longer designed as discrete spaces, but are thought of in terms of the entire process both at the facility level and within each lab itself. “Labs are designed to be flexible enough to support business model changes over time,” says Bryon Sutherly, AIA, Senior Project Architect, Hixson Architecture, Engineering Interiors. “And lab configurations are more standardized and supplemented with lab-specific equipment.” This allows for repurposing and conversion of labs with more ease than in the past.
One of the most prevalent trends in lab design is related to energy consumption within labs. Rather than an “it is what it is” attitude toward energy consumption, there’s a greater awareness about it and an active approach to energy reduction by design leaders in the industry. Interest in planning approaches and equipment that reduce energy use, particularly related to the conditioning and use of outside air, has become widespread among facility owners and end-users.
Collaboration is the key to today’s science. And in today’s labs, research collaboration has expanded from interdisciplinary scientific collaboration between departments to cross-disciplinary research. This encompasses traditional scientific departments, as well as broader research communities involving computer research, public/health policy, business and economics and private industry, according to Cabo.
Research labs are designed to accommodate different types of work within the same lab, as evidenced by fields like biochemistry, biophysics and geochemistry. Academic labs are now interdisciplinary and are rarely designed solely for one discipline. To some extent, the degree that collaborative environments are designed into labs is culturally driven—determined by the specific company culture and the types of work done. But overall, the trend is toward more collaborative and less private space.
Free full text source: http://www.labdesignnews.com/articles/2015/06/modern-trends-lab-design
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Lab of the future trends
Thu, 06/04/2015 - 1:54pm
by  Lindsay Hock, Editor
[EXCERPTS]
According to many of the architects surveyed for this trends article, water is a major area of concern and opportunity for labs. Water conservation in labs is rising in importance in light of droughts and water scarcity issues throughout the world. This is especially true in the western and southwestern U.S.
“Labs of the future will be incentivized, or required, to incorporate ‘living machines’ which treat water (black and grey) on site, due to their intensity of water use/dwindling potable reserves,” says Blake Jackson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Associate, Tsoi/Kobus & Associates. Living machines have been successfully tested and are a resilient solution to issues of water supply and are a means to educate the public through putting science on display.
Other solutions architects surveyed wanted to see more of regarding water conservation are piping RO/DI water from neighboring facilities to flush toilets and urinals and extracting waste heat from utility tunnels below lab sites to generate hot water for labs.
Flexibility was something architects believe will improve in future lab environments. Many claimed they wanted to see more features in labs that allow for adaptability rather than flexibility. And, according to Jeffrey Zynda, Associate Principal, Science Practice Leader, Payette, this is a reaction to the effort and cost to owners that have built-in features intended to provide flexibility, but rarely used.
What does this boil down to? Lab owners and designers should embrace modular features that allow end-users to customize lab furniture, casework and even fixed specialized lab equipment so it can be adapted to user needs in the future.
This isn’t to say the flexibility of systems that support reconfiguration aren’t important. As research needs change, lab infrastructure must be supportive. This option to reconfigure in the future also opens opportunities to collaborate across more disciplines and further multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.
Flexible design in future labs, and even current labs, can also allow labs to be truly sustainable by minimizing construction required for modification and incorporation of new technologies. “It will be interesting to find the right balance between fixed and flexible, so labs are functional for the science conducted within them,” says Sara Eastman, EwingCole.
In labs of the future the need for natural light and views will live on, as these features help create inspiring places for researchers and students. The more connections researchers have to the outside world, the happier they tend to be in their work environment. While the right amount of natural light is a thin balance between building siting and technology, architects are looking for better and more suitable technologies to assist with allowing natural light into labs.
Free full text source: http://www.labdesignnews.com/articles/2015/06/lab-future-trends
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How to design a lab: Part 8 of a series of posts

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.” -- Blaise Pascal (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662)

The Stanford Laboratory Standard & Design Guide, as described on its Web (http://web.stanford.edu/dept/EHS/prod/mainrencon/Labdesign.html), “is a resource document for use by faculty, staff, and design professionals during the planning and early design phases of a project. This Guide is to be used in conjunction with Stanford's Facilities Design Guidelines and applies to construction projects for all Stanford University facilities, including leased properties.”

The Stanford Guide focuses on health and safety.  Beyond the obvious need to protect researchers and other personnel, designing health and safety into the construction reduces costs associated with retrofitting a facility to accommodate EH&S requirements.

Excerpts from the Stanford Guide appear below.

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Stanford Laboratory Standard & Design Guide
INTRODUCTION
Purpose
Stanford University has a continuing need to modernize and upgrade its facilities. The resulting construction projects often have significant health and safety requirements due to regulatory oversight. Since these requirements can impact the design of a project, Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) prepared this EH&S Laboratory Design Guide to aid the campus community with planning and design issues. EH&S believes that the Guide, in conjunction with EH&S’s plan review and consultation, improves design efficiency and minimizes changes.
Format of Guide
The Guide is formatted to address laboratory design issues pertinent to General Laboratories (e.g., chemical laboratories) in Section 1, with additional requirements for Radioactive Materials Laboratories and Biosafety Level 2 Laboratories presented in Sections 2 and 3 respectively. Within the sections, specific design criteria are provided. Comments are included under the specific design criterion to give the user the rational behind the design feature.
Section 1.0: GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR STANFORD UNIVERSITY LABORATORIES
Scope
The primary objective in laboratory design is to provide a safe environment for laboratory personnel to conduct their work. A secondary objective is to allow for the maximum flexibility for safe research use. Undergraduate teaching laboratories require other specific design considerations. Therefore, all health and safety hazards must be anticipated and carefully evaluated so that protective measures can be incorporated into the design. No matter how well designed a laboratory is, improper usage of its facilities will always defeat the engineered safety features. Proper education of the facility users is essential. The General Requirements listed in this section illustrate some of the basic health and safety elements to include in all new and remodeled laboratories at Stanford. Variations from these guidelines need approval from SU Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S). The subsections of Section 1.0 provide specific guidance on additional critical features of a general laboratory (e.g., fume hoods, hazardous materials storage, and compressed gases.)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.1 Ventilation
1.2 Emergency Eyewash and Safety Shower Equipment
1.3 Pressure Vessel Components and Systems and Compressed Gas Cylinders 
1.4 Flammable Liquid Storage Cabinets 
1.5 Hazardous Materials Storage
2.0 Additional Requirements for Laboratories Using Radioactive Materials, Radiation Producing Machines, or Lasers 
3.0 Biosafety Level 2 Laboratories
Free full text source: http://web.stanford.edu/dept/EHS/prod/mainrencon/Labdesign.html
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How to design a lab: Part 7 of a series of posts

“A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom.” -- Ayn Rand (Russian born American Writer and Novelist, 1905-1982)

One item you will want to add to your collection is …
Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratory Facilities (1999)
While the focus is on biomedical research facilities, much of the content applies to any research laboratory, no matter what the focus. An excerpt from the introduction appears below. Bonus … You can read the full text of the Guidelines at no charge online.
Free full text source: http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ek_members/documents/pdf/aiap014820.pdf

You will also want to read about the update to the Guidelines, which will broaden the scope from biomedical to advanced research laboratories in general. Browse to the end of this post to read excerpts from an article describing the work on the update.

TIP: When, as in this case, you run across a useful source which is relatively old, Google® the title to see if there may be a more recent version available.

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Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratory Facilities (1999)
The American Institute of Architects, Center for Advanced Technology Facilities Design
110 pages

FROM THE INTRODUCTION
Designing a state-of-the-art biomedical research laboratory can be a daunting task for any design professional. Understanding the special requirements of the researcher in the facility is just the first step. You need to also be knowledgeable in materials handling, isolation units, special equipment stabilization, hazardous waste disposal, biocontainment areas, positive air flows, security issues, multilevel governmental regulations, and hightech support systems.The list goes on and on. Where do you start?
Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratory Facilities provides the introductory starting point you need to understand the special design needs and requirements of biomedical research laboratories. The information presented here is an easy way to grasp the basic elements, relationships, and special considerations of this complicated and technically challenging design area.
The initial basis for Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratory Facilities was a set of design guidelines for biomedical research facilities originally developed by the National Institutes of Health. This material has been revised and augmented with a wide array of knowledge pulled together by a multidisciplinary task group of experts. The result is a comprehensive set of design guidelines that are not specific to any one type of public or private sector biomedical research. Instead, you will find the material applicable to most biomedical research facilities in any setting.
General
The purpose of this document is to provide information to the design and research communities on the planning and design of biomedical research laboratories. These guidelines reflect the judgment of a multidisciplinary group of experts in research laboratory design and operation. They encompass the majority of current best practices today, but they are neither universal solutions nor detailed enough to answer every question that may arise in the course of a specific planning and design project.
It is not the intent of this document to specify construction techniques, to prescribe facilities quality or cost criteria, or to serve as code requirements. The intent instead is to identify issues and approaches that deserve careful thought when undertaking biomedical research facilities projects. Such facilities are complex and require these special and specific design considerations.
As highly changeable environments, biomedical research laboratories and their support spaces must be flexible and able to readily accommodate a wide range of current and future requirements and hazards. To achieve satisfactory results from the planning and design, it is important that the project owner supply for each project a functional program for the facility that describes the purpose of the project, the projected demand or utilization, staffing patterns, departmental relationships, space requirements, and other basic information relating to fulfillment of the organization's objectives. This program may include a description of each function or service; the operational space required for each function; the number of staff or other occupants of the various spaces; the equipment required in each space; the numbers, types, and areas (in net square meters) of all spaces; the special design features; the systems of operation; and the interrelationships of various functions and spaces.
The functional program should also include a description of those services necessary for the complete operation of the facility, and it should address future expansion of essential services that may be needed to accommodate increased demand for technological change. The approved functional program shall be made available for use by all members of the design team in the development of project design and construction documents.
A total "environmental approach," including attention to site, structure, massing, circulation, visual harmony, open areas, existing conditions, and construction logistics, as well as operational sustainability, is the most effective strategy when planning biomedical research facilities. A design approach that responds to these specific issues will serve to create a product that is functional, aesthetic, flexible, and reliable. Design professionals must consider all these criteria to meet the needs that are identified by users, dictated by functional relationships, and imposed by specific existing conditions.
It is extremely important to recognize that the end users (researchers, facility managers, administrators, etc.) are integral parts of this process, and their involvement is essential to the project success from the outset. The most effective method by which to integrate scientific, administrative, and facility requirements is through a "partnership" interaction whereby design professionals and end users share a clearly defined goal. Accomplishing such a shared vision through the entire design, construction, and operations process ensures the operational functionality, sustainability, and reliability of these sophisticated facilities.
A hazard assessment must be conducted for each investigative and research function. The assessment becomes a critical determining factor in design and throughout the full life cycle of the facility. A main purpose of these guidelines is to assist in the design of "safe space" to support research.
In response to this purpose, all laboratories are assumed in design to contain chemical, radiological, and biological hazards, since all of these scientific activities may occur within the space during its life cycle. Containment devices and researcher procedures are used in concert with the facility to manage these hazards. Architectural and engineering features are also essential to maintain proper safety for workers and visitors. Every research facility shall provide and maintain a safe environment for personnel and the public. When chemical fume hoods are required, even to handle small quantities of hazardous material, then the laboratory space must have air pressure negative in relation to adjacent egress and circulation corridors. In addition, the exhaust system requires redundancy to establish reliable containment. Radioisotopes, usually used only in trace amounts, must be secured and shielded. Biohazards are assumed to be at Biosafety Level
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UPDATE
Building Design & Construction (March 03, 2009)
AIA, I2SL to develop laboratory facility design and planning guidelines
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding allowing both organizations to leverage their unique resources and expertise toward the creation of a comprehensive laboratory facilities guideline for planning and design.  These new guidelines will build on the 1999 AIA Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratories.
AIA and I2SL agree that laboratories must be a major focal point in enhancing human health and the built and natural environment. The organizations believe that comprehensive guidelines for laboratories are necessary as these unique facility types form a large part of the research infrastructure and are the foundation supporting successful societies throughout academia, industry, and government, worldwide. The long-term investments required to build laboratories and their costly operation costs provide more reason for the organizations to work together to develop a set of guidelines on how to properly plan for and build these facilities.
The guidelines will define integrated building strategies that will offer a sustainable approach to global building challenges.  While the 1999 AIA guideline did provide guidance on biomedical research laboratories, there currently is no document that provides a comprehensive planning and design guidelines for various types of research facilities.  Without a comprehensive guideline document, laboratory designers, engineers, owners, operators, and other professionals do not have a comprehensive guide to refer to in their efforts to deliver these specialized facilities. While all laboratories and their support space are unique, they must be safe and secure, effective and flexible, engaging and modern, environmentally sustainable and energy efficient, life-cycle cost effective, and meet the appropriate controlling building codes. The guidelines will aim to be a comprehensive resource for this information.
source: http://www.bdcnetwork.com/aia-i2sl-develop-laboratory-facility-design-and-planning-guidelines
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