Organization, technology, human factors will drive design in coming decade By the editors of R&D Magazine Sixth of a six-part series of articles based on research revealing the current state of, and likely challenges for, laboratory design. Refer to Part 1 (July, page 1) for information on how data were collected. Series produced with sponsorship support by Labconco Inc., VWR, Kewaunee Scientific Corp., and Biofit Engineered Products. Material originally published in a different form in the May 2006 issue of R&D Magazine. China and India are where all the action will occur in research lab growth over the next 10 years, according to a survey conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology. Click to enlarge Theresa Kotanchek is the global technology director for Asia Pacific at The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich. Right now, one of her responsibilities is to build a 700,000-ft2 state-of-the-art research lab and global IT center in Shanghai, China, that, when completed in 2007, will employ more than 1,000 people. How will these labs differ from Dow’s existing labs? Kotanchek says, “We’re incorporating ‘flexilab’ design concepts that will allow us to rapidly adapt laboratory spaces to our regional application development and core science needs. The labs will be set up for customers to interface with our staff during various phases of product design and development.” And how will Dow’s other labs, including those in the U.S., interface with the new Shanghai lab? “Dow has many systems and protocols in place to ensure global transparency and the sharing of R&D results. Our product development programs are now managed globally, via a global development team that operates 24/7. Our IT capabilities enable ease of communications and collaboration, globally.” Kotanchek’s project in Shanghai embodies a number of key trends for the lab of the future. The fact that Dow is building a “global” R&D and IT facility is an initial clue that reveals where future research action will reside. “China produces 3 million university graduates a year, and Dow’s ability to tap into this pool of talent is important for the continued success of the company,” she says. Kotanchek also mentions flexible lab concepts for rapid adaptation. And finally, she talks about 24/7 R&D operations and global design teams. Building the “perfect” physical research facility in 2016 will be a useless exercise if it doesn’t have global capabilities. Strategic research with world-leading universities, institutes, and external technology sources—be they in China, the U.S., the U.K., India, or Russia—will only be possible with a robust physical and IT infrastructure. Globalization, nanotechnology, multidisciplinary team-based research, and pressures for faster times to market are expected to have some of the greatest physical influences on the Lab of the Future, according to a survey by Fraunhofer Institute. Click to enlarge. Specific needs Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute confirmed these conclusions with their prediction of the four main drivers that will influence the development of new research labs and workflows: • An increase in team-based research, with more cross-discipline interaction and more cross-border cooperation. • An increasing relevance of human factors in the laboratory environments. • The ubiquitous use of automated processes and ICT (information and communication technologies). • The emergence and advancement of new technologies and their integration into bio-related research. They’re slightly different words than Kotanchek’s, but they tell the same basic story. These are overriding issues in the lab of the future. Team-oriented research is becoming the norm in the scientific world, with clients for new lab projects almost universally asking for measures to facilitate interaction and communication. The goal is increased efficiency, productivity, and innovation in research. Clients and designers are also becoming more sophisticated about how humans interact with each other and with instrumentation. Social issues and ergonomics are thus gaining new prominence in the design process, even as the importance of high-quality scientific instruments continues to be emphasized. Indeed, R&D Magazine’s researcher survey reveals that the overwhelming design needs over the next 10 years will be an increased need for instrument space (74% of the respondents), networking capabilities (73%), storage (63%), and automation (60%). Trends Keywords addressed so far that apply to the lab of the future—multidisciplinary, global, team, and flexibility—all apply primarily to the organizational structure of the lab. Emerging technologies are also forcing design changes. Some of the buzzwords in this category are nanobiotechnology, biocontainment, vivariums, modeling, and ICT. Dramatic architectural statements in research laboratory design, like the Cairns Pavilion shown at the U.K.’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, are helpful in recruiting leading researchers to new labs and in helping retain existing researchers with eye-pleasing scenes and amenities. Photo: © NBBJ/Matt Milios. • Nanobiotechnology is an enabling technology that is forecast to support a $1 trillion industry growth by 2015. Relatively few research labs are currently able to support standard nanotech research, much less nanobiotech. There are fewer than 10 national labs in the works that support the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, and only a handful of large, dedicated academic facilities. Many other schools and commercial organizations are getting into the fray in a small way to keep their options open, while closely monitoring some of the nanotech health issues being raised by watchdog groups. • Biocontainment increasingly gets funding support from agencies concerned about bioterrorism (primarily, the federal Dept. of Homeland Security, but also state and some private organizations) and health, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These organizations have more combined research monies than all the other government agencies combined, so the net result is that there are substantial funding dollars available, even in this era of tight fiscal controls. There are some concerns that the biocontainment research market is already saturated, but the facility overflow is easily transferred to other health-related areas, like cancer research. • Vivariums, a time-honored tool for biological research, continue to evolve. While many lab managers are extremely sensitive about their vivarium activities due to the aggressiveness of “animal rights” groups such as PETA, vivariums are increasingly critical for genomic research and drug development, in particular. Automation systems will gain ground here for efficient cleaning, filling, and waste disposal of cages, as well as watering and ventilation. There is an ongoing transition from the use of mice to zebrafish for some types of research, requiring a different type of design and operational expertise. • Modeling is the holy grail of research, with software systems frequently boasting that this or that system is on the verge of simulating a cure for some specific disease. Big players, like IBM and the Dept. of Energy, have been in this arena for many years, dedicating the world’s most powerful supercomputers to the task. And still, there has not been a breakthrough system that will eliminate the use of animal studies. Modeling research, however, continues, and database mining and search systems along with knowledge systems and physical modeling are evolving as methods of choice for various research applications. • ICT (information and communication technologies) have become pervasive in the research process but are far from fully developed. The development of wireless sensors and wireless communication systems continues to change the way researchers collect their information and process their results. Similarly, the development of VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), while in its infancy, is likely to further transform the telecommunication industry and our access to information on a global scale. More zebrafish vivariums are replacing, or at least augmenting, traditional rodent-based vivariums. Photo: Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. Architecture Little mention has been made throughout this study of the value of the architectural design of the research lab and how this factor might evolve in the lab of the future. Quality architectural design is becoming more widely acknowledged as crucial, not only providing aesthetic appeal but also contributing greatly to the well-being of the staff, to the science organization’s relationship with the local community, and to the recruitment potential of the lab. The graceful curves of the Cairns Pavilion at this year’s R&D Lab of the Year Special Mention winner, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, U.K., help blend the building into the gently rolling countryside. A similar theme—fitting the buildings to the environment—informs the design of the entire campus, creating a pleasant place to work for researchers and also enhancing community relations. Similarly, the use of large amounts of glass in this year’s R&D Lab of the Year winner, the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State Univ. in Tempe, creates a window to the community while delivering natural light into the depths of the multi-wing facility. The further use of glass in the open atrium provides a transparent environment that both separates and opens views between the offices and the labs, producing a lively, open environment in a large structure. The drive toward daylighting and transparency appears to be an unstoppable trend at this point, limited only by the fact that some types of science preclude natural light. Researchers consistently indicate that they will need more space in their labs of the future: space for instruments, lab support, and overall lab size. They also see an increased need for networking systems, safety and security systems, and automation. What they don’t see an increased need for are raised floors within their labs, or operable windows. They also feel that the current level of ADA access is adequate.Click to enlarge. The architecture of the lab of the future will continue to evoke an emotional, creative response from the research staff. Look for designers to experiment with new materials, construction technologies, and communications tools, with the latter creating opportunities for getting users even more fully involved in the early phases of design. Sustainability strategies will also become all-but-mandatory, strengthening the link between the building, its users, and the surrounding environment. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, for example, is building a large headquarters research lab right into a hillside, above a pond, on the Janelia Farm in Loudoun County, Va. The research lab, known as the “landscape building,” has a “green” roof and abundant glass. It has very little elegant architecture, per se, but it makes a very elegant architectural statement—while providing state-of-the-art scientific capabilities. Such a blending of technology and aesthetic quality is likely to be a hallmark of tomorrow’s labs, just as the best labs of the past, such as the groundbreaking Salk Institute, incorporated the highest standards for both architecture and science. Scientific workplace of the future Interlinked collection of “active spaces” • Project rooms and personal workspaces • Virtualization of workspaces (pocket laboratory) Pervasive computer-mediated support • Personal work and just-in-time learning • Group work and virtual organizations • Integrated grid infrastructure (WAN grid access to significant experimental resources; LAN grid coordinating multiple computing devices and systems) Pervasive virtualization of services • Computing, storage, and applications Source: Argonne National Laboratory