What do you know about laboratory design? What are requirements for designing a science laboratory?

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Designing a Successful School Science Lab

With the push for higher state and national science standards, many schools are seeking means to update their antiquated science lab equipment and propel their school science laboratories into the 21st century. While traditional science lab furniture, Bunsen burners, and beakers are not passé, modern school science lab designs feature:

• SMART Boards
• Digital Whiteboards
• LCD projectors
• Utility islands with gas, water, electrical, and data outlets
• Approved safety equipment
• Epoxy-top tables with chemical-resistant surfaces
• Mobile teacher demonstration stations
• Modular student lab workstations allowing for small group collaboration and learning
• Maximized storage space solutions
• Laboratories which can be used interchangeably for general science, chemistry, physics, biology, and physiology classes.

Laboratory should have :

1. Flexibility

Effortlessly and efficiently dividing science lessons between practical and theoretical learning helps students apply their knowledge more effectively. A theoretical understanding of scientific principles can aid students’ participation in practical learning and intelligent classroom design can strongly support this.

2. Environmental Factors

It is not merely the content of the lessons or how it is being delivered which helps improve students’ understanding of a subject, but also the environment in which they are taught. The University of Salford are continuing research which so far highlights that environmental factors affect the progress of 73% of students. Measuring students from 34 classrooms over one academic year, the research team discovered that learning progress can be affected by as much as 25% by the environmental factors of a classroom. Our team carefully considers all environmental factors when designing a laboratory including the use of natural light, acoustics, storage and colour.

3. Student Positioning

Since the Victorian era, the standard seating arrangement in the classroom has been row after row of students facing a tutor at the head of a long, narrow classroom. Despite curriculum’s, technologies and even scientific understanding having changed dramatically in the past 150 years, the classroom set-up largely remains the same. Classrooms must adapt to support a range of different learning activities to help encourage interaction and collaboration.

4. Use of Space

Sufficient circulation space in classrooms is important when maintaining a safe working environment. The arrangement of fixed and loose furnishings needs to afford teachers and students the freedom to circulate easily around the classroom. This freedom of movement can help improve the interaction between all parties to ensure a safer and more accessible lab which helps to promote inspiration.

BOX 3.4 Examples of Large-to Small-Scale Design Considerations

1. Building and site issues

• Renovation versus new construction
• Building site

2. Floor planning

• Adjacencies
• Traffic flow

3. Laboratory configuration

• Individual laboratories
• Support spaces

4. Building services and structure

Operation costs, they are critical to the functionality of the facility and the safety of the building users and surrounding community. Users' familiarity with alternative approaches to specific laboratory design issues will most likely lead to a more efficient, cost-effective, flexible, safe, and environmentally appropriate laboratory facility. Although an experienced and knowledgeable design professional can assist in the identification of design issues to consider and can evaluate appropriate alternative approaches to laboratory design, this is not always the case. Even when an experienced and knowledgeable design professional is available, it is advantageous for the user representative and the client team to become informed consumers of the design professional's services. 

The design considerations presented here range from those requiring large-scale decisions, such as constructing a new building versus renovating an existing building, through intermediate-scale options such as floor planning, to small-scale issues, such as laboratory configuration. They also include considerations related to structural as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems (Box 3.4). Administrative policies should be considered throughout, since many institutions have defined practices or standards that affect many design issues. Many of the design considerations are interdependent. Decisions regarding larger-scale issues, which should be made early in the design process, can limit or preclude many of the smaller-scale design decisions. Knowledge of these dependencies, often provided by the laboratory design professional to the client team, will help streamline the design process and maximize the potential for a cost-effective and optimum design solution is acceptable as an alternative in laboratory design may differ according to scientific discipline. This report focuses primarily on chemical, biochemical, and molecular biology laboratories, but it is also relevant to laboratories in related disciplines such as food science, agricultural science, pharmacy, materials science, some engineering sciences, and physics. However, the requirements of highly specialized laboratories, such as animal facilities, are covered in other guides such as the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NRC, 1996). Richmond and McKinney (1993) provides design details for laboratories using identifiable infectious agents. 

Acceptable design alternatives also differ between organizations on the basis of their goals, geographic location, governing authorities, and other factors, The goals for a new research laboratory building o renovation should be determined in the early stages of planning as they will influence the development of appropriate design alternatives. Geographic location may influence the acceptability of a particular design alternative; for example, the more stringent seismic requirements of building codes in southern California, as compared to New Jersey, will influence the overall height of the laboratory building in California both because of the increased structural costs associated with the applicable building codes and because of building height restrictions. Similarly, the authority of local governing authorities to interpret zoning regulations, building and fire codes, and other local regulations can influence the design of the laboratory facility. Choosing between the different alternatives is a complex process that must strike a balance between benefits and costs. The latter include construction, total project, operation, and lifetime costs of the building; these costs are discussed in the section on "Research Laboratory Cost Considerations" in this chapter. When choosing between the different alternatives, other factors besides costs and benefits also need to be considered flexibility is the one that often pervades all the design considerations discussed in this chapter. Flexibility, which is also referred to as adaptability, is the ability of a building site, building design, or individual laboratory to meet both current and unforeseen future needs. Future laboratory additions, renovations, and modifications can be implemented cost effectively, in a timely manner, and with less disruption to other users if the laboratory facility is designed to be flexible. Flexibility may come at a modest increase in the initial construction cost; however, because numerous changes will be made to a laboratory over its lifetime, the cost incurred to design and Building Site 

If the predesign recommendation is to construct an addition or a new building, a building site must be selected. While the selection process for a building site is complicated by many factors and can be difficult, the decision regarding the building site should ultimately be based on a total environmental approach. How does the building fit into the campus and community? What demands are placed on the natural and manmade environment? For example, electric power, telephone and communications lines, and sewer and water connections may have to be upgraded. For corporate and academic campuses with other centralized utilities, such as steam.

Some of the design considerations discussed in this chapter include specific alternative approaches. 

What BOX 3.7 Demands Made on the Environment by Laboratory Facilities

Natural Environment

• Air quality

—Building emissions

—Traffic emissions

• Water quality

—Building effluents

—Storm water runoff 

Man-made Environment

• Transport of hazardous materials

• Additional vehicular traffic

• Space for parking

• Fire protection

• Access for emergency response

for heating and cooling water, expansion of or upgrades to the central power plant and cooling towers may also be needed. 

Floor Planning

 The planning of the laboratory floor is influenced by the building's site, building and fire codes, security concerns, laboratory users, the culture of the organization, and other design decisions made during previous phases. The laboratory floor layout and the resulting traffic flow can reflect or change the culture of an organization. For example, the building can promote interaction by centralizing or clustering research offices and by locating conference rooms or other meeting spaces to allow ready access from the laboratories and offices, or it can isolate researchers by placing small, closed laboratories along a lengthy circulation corridor. Interaction diagrams can be used as a method to identify desirable and undesirable interactions within the building as well as critical interactions between occupants of the building and the surrounding campus and community. These interactions should be considered when alternative floor layouts are evaluated to identify appropriate adjacencies.

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filters and bio safety cabinets may be required to meet the special ventilation requirements. These and other features (Box 3.10) of laboratories and many of the related issues that must be considered when designing a laboratory are discussed in this section.

BOX 3.10 Laboratory Features and Furnishings

• Laboratory desks
• Bench tops
• Fume hoods
• Flooring
• Special ventilation
• Lighting
• Laboratory casework and furniture
• Accommodation of special environments
• Laboratory utility services