Laboratory Design Newsletter has published a new piece from Eric Jaffe entitled, “Innovative Design vs. Innovative Process,” focused on how while it has been nearly 30 years since the last innovation in physical lab space, designers are constantly innovating their tools and approaches. As Jaffe puts it, “Isn’t innovative laboratory design today a mix of both research connectivity and paradigm change within an organization coupled with the physical environment?”
The full article can be read online here.
Here is a brief excerpt from the piece:
What has changed over the last 30 years is the way planners and designers bring new ideas to the organization of activities and people. The level of strategic planning, historical knowledge and depth of expertise has increased significantly. Design teams commissioned to work with an organization come to the table armed with robust resources to help institutions make informed decisions. There is a greater effort to do pre-planning activities to go beyond the understanding of the functional requirements of a laboratory, to a greater understanding of the business organization, structural connections, as well as financial and business strategies of the entire organization. With this deep dive into an organization beyond just the functional lab needs come new ideas about optimization, shared resources, revenue generation, sustainability, community outreach, and of course, interdisciplinary research. As a result of these efforts, the strategies and ideas that make up the new laboratory designs are pulled from ideas of the past and reconfigured to create a new and fresh laboratory solution for a specific institution that not only meets the functional needs of the researchers, but the financial, strategic and visionary goals of the institution.