Laboratory Design Strategy

Dimensional Area of typical laboratory.

Laboratories typically require a number of service spaces of various scales depending upon the size and significance of the processes being performed. Typically office space is needed for all out of lab activities, often equal to approximately 85% of the time and efforts spent on an experiment are not in the laboratory but in offices and support areas spent processing and anylising data. Laboratories often perform dangerous and high risk procedures and may need to be isolated from other portions of a building and always require a lareg amount of service space for equipment and other services. In many instances in high tehnology the rooms must be RF secure blocking radio frequencies and similar electromagnetic radition that may affect sensitive equipment. See RF Design.

Sustainable design criteria for building performance.

Shown in the top portion of the image above is an example of an open/closed lab:

Shown below it is an example of a closed Lab.

The alternative layouts of these labs gives an idea of the spacial differences between the open lab and the closed lab, in ordinary circumstances, closed labs are very specific and usually for high hazard experimentation. Open labs offer more generic space for a variety of experiments and for data recording and processing not directly in the presence of an experiment, this space is more social and group oriented.

Laboratory Examples

	Watch, Daniel Building Type Basics for Research Laboratories, Toronto, ON: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2001