The Shift from Wet to Dry Research

Traditional ‘wet’ laboratory work is being replaced with bio-informatics and computational research in ‘dry’ laboratories. This provides an opportunity to review how buildings are designed for research, and both reduce the cost of buildings and produce buildings that are better suited to flexible collaborative and interactive working. ‘Dry’ laboratories are less space-hungry and cheaper to provide than traditional ‘wet’ research space.

Given the changes in research towards more computational work, with less use of traditional laboratories, many universities are looking for ‘wet’ labs with improved utilisation and the ability for researchers to use wet and dry labs flexibly, as and when it suits their research.

‘Hot-benching’ allows researchers to make use of a bench space as and when they need it. This only works when laboratory management policies are in place to support hot-desking and when specialist equipment can be shared. This is common practice in industry but more unusual in academia.

Encouraging as many secondary activities as possible to be located within a shared ‘core’ facility reduces the overall need for laboratory space. This requires a change in culture for many academic users. They are used to the idea of bidding for equipment on the back of research grants, etc., and not making use of specialist equipment (and the space it takes up) as shared/centralised facilities.

Collaborative Research Environments

Traditional laboratory buildings do not typically generate a particularly collaborative working environment. They contain many divided spaces, research groups often work behind closed doors, and the ability to meet colleagues or to share facilities is very limited.

Modern research benefits from a collaborative environment with new avenues and explorations being born out of the ability for researchers to meet, collaborate and work together – formally or through serendipitous encounters.

Buildings should be organised to facilitate this with a generosity to circulation spaces and a focus on social spaces as the heart of successful research facilities.

Traditionally dry research or ‘write-up’ work was carried out in a quiet, separate area, which was space-hungry and inflexible. There is still some need for this type of space in academic institutions where this culture is ingrained. However, not everyone expects a desk to work from: some work at home, some prefer to work in a canteen or at a shared informal break-out space.

The relationship between different types of space is also critical. By removing the traditional relationship between wet lab and write-up, opportunities for interaction and efficiencies are generated through the management of researchers around a building.

Example
Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing Cologne, Hammeskrause Architekten

The layout and organisation of the building fundamentally enables a collaborative research environment (demonstrated on the upper floor plan). Offices and specialist labs – the more quiet and sensitive space types – are located around the perimeter of the building. Laboratory clusters sit inward, creating a quiet corridor relationship with the perimeter offices but are open to guests and other building users within the central atrium space, which comprises transparent meeting rooms. The extensive use of glass maximises visibility between laboratories, offices and public activities within the atrium, fostering cross-collaboration between departments and further allows for science to be the showcase of the building. Bridges within the atrium allow for horizontal circulation between individual lab clusters, connecting the varying research departments.

Figures 2.38, 2.39 and 2.40 Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Hammeskrause Architekten

Example
University of Exeter Living Systems Institute HawkinsBrown

At the Living Systems building at the University of Exeter all wet laboratories have been stacked to minimise horizontal services distribution and simplify the services strategy. The open lab clusters have been designed to enable all of the benching to be removed wholly, or in part, providing flexibility for the placement of equipment and workspaces. Services are zoned to reduce downtime when labs are reconfigured; central aisles are serviced from overhead. To improve space and operational efficiency, equipment trolleys are used to allow rapid changes in use and user. Overhead services, not fixed to the benching, are used to allow rapid adaptation of the lab to accommodate workspace and equipment configurations.

Figures 2.41 and 2.42

Flexibility in Laboratory Buildings

The nature of scientific research is constantly changing and evolving. New methods, equipment and technologies require different spatial and servicing configurations. New groups will join a research community and bring with them new demands on space. Flexibility in laboratory buildings should be thought of across many different scales, from the basic building location through to the detailed design of furniture, fixtures and equipment (FFE) and controls.

Testing and Interrogation

The process of testing assumptions and layouts through the design stages and continually reviewing the impact of emerging technologies is critical in ensuring a building’s future flexibility.

Example
Physics Department University of Oxford, HawkinsBrown

DESIGN OF COLLABORATION SPACES The design of interaction and collaboration space requires careful consideration. These spaces are harder to get right, because how they are used is less predictable and they are spaces that are new and untested for a department. At the new Experimental and Theoretical Physics Building, a number of typologies were developed to describe collaboration spaces. For each space we considered numbers, activity, the time people would spend in the space, location in relation to circulation routes, the anticipated nature of the collaborative working, etc. These spaces have become the focus for the department and are fundamental to its success in forming new research threads.

Figures 2.43 and 2.44