On Will Alsop’s new design for the Institute of Cell and Molecular Science at Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry:
“The design introduces the radical concept of flexible space into research laboratories. For good measure–from the outside and from an overhead gallery–it makes the community aware of what’s happening.
This type of plan is quite new in a top laboratory building with many experiments and studies going on…’Instead of cancer research, cutaneous disease research, and so forth owning their space exclusively, the scientists share space. That gives the college flexibility for their programs and a smaller building than would otherwise have to be built. It also allowed everything to be made visible.’
Viewed from above, staff are seen at work with their equipment alongside serried ranks of lab tables under narrow sky blue canopies that hold lights and sprinklers. This communal gathering is quite a big deal compared to the crabbed little lab cubicles of old, where scientists closed their doors and disappeared–and though it was programmed from the start, the occupants are still trying to get used to it. Don’t valuable instruments and equipment need to be locked up if postdoctorate researchers are on hard-won grants? ‘An open plan has its own surveillance and security,’ Hunt says.”
See also:
SF Gate: Formula for scientific innovation: Omit walls
Trends in Lab Design by Daniel Watch
Design for Discovery — and Cure by Steven K. Gifford