by Donna A. DeFreitas
Open R&D laboratory floor area with overhead utilities
This past year, we have seen a shift in the individual laboratory planning layouts required in research and development laboratory renovation projects; these layouts are being initiated to support research end users’ new laboratory equipment needs and allow them to process more samples and their associated data quickly.
We have found this trend specifically in biologic R&D laboratories renovations, which means goodbye to the standard benchtop space and hello to floor-mounted equipment with adequate clearances on all sides and infrastructure brought from below or above. There is also a requirement for adjacent computer equipment to aid scientists in simulation, which minimizes the runtimes of samples and yields faster evaluation of their data collections. Examples of laboratory floor-mounted equipment include automated liquid handling workstations, high-speed cell sorters, and mass spectrometry carts.
Additionally, we have seen benchtop space being replaced by dedicated biological safety cabinets (BSCs) for specific evaluation processes, dictated by specific research end users. BSCs are clean air enclosures that protect the person, product, and environment from exposure to biohazards and cross contamination during routine R&D processes.
Classification is a critical consideration in the selection of a BSC and needs to be evaluated with the end users and their environmental, safety, and health (ES&H) counterparts to understand both the R&D processes and handling hazards that are created within the enclosures. The type of classification selected and the laboratory utilities required within the BSCs may have a large impact on the type of infrastructure required in a R&D laboratory renovation project. We’ve seen this shift of decreased bench space and increased concentration of BSCs provide a higher level of potential safety for researchers regardless of historical ES&H classifications of their research activities.
Lastly, we are seeing continued removal of write-up desk space from laboratories. Perhaps this is based on the use of more floor-mounted, large-throughput equipment that utilizes computerized means to collect sample data; or, it may be a client-specific ES&H change in their standard operating procedures. While researchers have reported liking to live in their laboratory spaces, the push to change research culture, to have them set up and do hands-on experiments in the laboratories and then perform non-lab activities in office space, provides obvious benefits, ranging from increased collaboration, lower first costs, and lower resulting operating and maintenance costs.
In R&D laboratory renovations, the success of the project is driven by establishing a proactive approach with specific end users of the laboratory spaces, to understand their current and potential future research equipment needs and work flow patterns, making them an integral part of the design team to help them own their research laboratory spaces and understand how to properly operate within them. The development of an equipment matrix with all the proper information on the laboratory equipment specifications and the required infrastructure becomes a key means to document the renovation design development process and can help initiate the discussions on the project requirements for the future.
Communication is always a key element in every project, specifically in an occupied R&D laboratory building as it engages all key stakeholders from the researchers, ES&H and building facilities early and helps to understand the purpose of their subject matter expertise to provide an interactive design and construction phases. Finally, it is critical that there is clear and concise documentation of the existing and new infrastructure capacities, provisions for system isolation for future modifications and possibly improving the current building design and record documentation; all which are key project turn-over packages to support the new operation of the facilities as well as the flexibility and adaptability for future R&D equipment changes.
Donna A. DeFreitas is associate principal at Vanderweil Engineers in Boston.
