Nearly 20 years ago, as a young designer at Payette, I had the opportunity focus on the design the teaching laboratories for Vanderbilt University’s new chemistry building. It gives me great pride to know that the innovations that we achieved in those designs have become the model for nearly all the organic chemistry teaching labs built in the US since then. The innovations were driven by curriculum changes in which universities began to base the lab work on fume hood activities rather than bench activities. This change was the result both of safety concerns and of the desire to give students the experience they would need to work in professional laboratory environments. But how could all these hoods fit in a lab (one station per student)? After a bench-marking tour of teaching labs nationwide with the faculty, we collectively rejected the designs, in fashion at the time, that placed the bulky fume hoods in the center of the laboratory space, where they served as visual impediments. Even the schemes to use “see through” fume hoods were disappointing, in our view, as the multitude of reflections did not reduce the visual impediment.
Innovations in Teaching Lab Design by Mark Reed
Nearly 20 years ago, as a young designer at Payette, I had the opportunity focus on the design the teaching laboratories for Vanderbilt University’s new chemistry building. It gives me great pride to know that the innovations that we achieved in those designs have become the model for nearly all the organic chemistry teaching labs built in the US since then. The innovations were driven by curriculum changes in which universities began to base the lab work on fume hood activities rather than bench activities.
What we decided to do instead was to prioritize the learning environment on a few fundamental principles. The labs would have great sight lines, with 360 degree visibility, in order to allow professors and teaching assistants to monitor the safety of the hood activities from anywhere in the room. The labs would have great acoustics, to allow the students and faculty to engage in collaborative work before lab and during the write up phase. The aisle widths would be increased to allow safe passage between hoods and dry work areas. The cleanliness of the lab air due to the high ventilation rates would allow instruments, formerly housed in dedicated and remote instrument rooms, to be brought into the center of the lab allowing for hands-on usage. And finally, with the early advent of laptop computing, a dry write up and analysis zone ringed the central instrument area, giving students a convenient place to conduct their work within steps of their hood.
In our recent work on teaching lab design, we’ve found opportunities to take these innovations a step further. In addition to the fundamental principles we developed in the Vanderbilt model, our clients are now seeking to integrate multi-media capabilities and sustainable design into the lab environment. These new requirements generate a new set of innovations, and we are interested in expressing these changes in the design. For one small liberal arts college in the area, we have zoned the lab from a wet bench zone along the windows to the rear of the lab, to a bench zone for individual a group work towards the center of the lab, to a dry computation and discussion area approaching the front of the lab, culminating in a curved media wall that serves as the prime visual and communication area. The curved forms necessary to give great sight lines from all the benches in the labs are echoed in the curvature of the lab benches which subtly define individual work zones and group work areas. From a sustainability standpoint, the fact that experiments are all predefined and prescriptive (unlike in a research lab), allows ductless fume hoods to be a viable option.
This is an exciting time for teaching lab design. The recognition of the students’ need to learn in multi-mode fashion, accustomed to highly visual, interactive and multi-tasking social media, means the labs of the future are going to be fundamentally different than those of the past. We are looking forward to being a part of that transition and to realize the design potential of these new forces.
Mark Reed, AIA LEED AP is a principal at LAB Life. Science. Architecture, Inc., a Boston-based laboratory design firm.