Space planning, project evaluation and construction budget optimization are intrinsic components to facility and
planning offices at colleges and universities. The stakes for capital allocation decisions are heightened for teaching
and research labs given their increased budget requirements for fit-out and building systems. Contemporary
academic lab design finds a different set of parameters: discerning students, design-savvy faculty and razor-thin
margins. A more and more common solution points to space re-use and rehabilitation—a solution that can prove
prudent and cost effective but challenges the architect and design team to seek creative, affordable solutions
without compromising teaching, safety or classroom technologies.
Academic teaching and research lab renovations can include a variety of lab sizes and types for biology, chemistry
and physics. These labs often demand high volumes of air for fume hoods, increased electrical needs for
equipment and strict temperature and humidity controls to meet stringent requirements for equipment and
experiments. Moreover, lab safety concerns translate into science teaching environments with good visibility
and requisite safety stations. And teaching labs must work for faculty, teaching assistants and students to ensure
oversight, observation and effective instruction including computational stations and computer locations as an
integral part of labs design. As home to students ranging from novice scientists to hardcore pre-meds to non-
majors seeking a distribution requirement, teaching labs are among the most intense and dynamic educational
environments at colleges or universities.
Obsolete facilities, new equipment and competition with peer institutions all contribute to the ongoing and ever-
more-important need for colleges and universities to refresh and reformulate their labs and associated classrooms
and resource rooms. These needs—compounded by an uncertain economy—are leading many institutions
to pursue strategies in rejuvenating spaces rather than replacing them. Outdated spaces can be successfully
transformed by a new generation aesthetic crafted in clear, understandable layouts and constructed of affordable
and durable materials. It is this newest formulation that is proving to be the most teaching-focused, cost-
conscious, and clearest expression of challenging renovations, aka ‘big renovations for small dollars’.
George Takoudes is a Principal at isgenuity, LLC in Needham, MA