Our approach involves gathering published and openly available pieces of lab intelligence, including texts, photos, and videos, to assemble a concise understanding of the building. We focus on "how does it work" rather than "what does it look like," so no photos are included. Instead, we provide plans and sections, distilled to the essentials through analytical redrawing by hand. As far as the plans are concerned, clever is beautiful.

Story

Each lab building serves a particular purpose. We introduce the building’s Story, its big picture. Then we break it down into the particulars - Function, Stacking, Structure, Fitout, Parti, and Stats. We analyze how the particulars enable the building program and offer some Thoughts.

Function

The Functional plans demonstrate the composition of the purpose spaces within the building, revealing their relative areas, format, and connections. The purpose areas are color-coded to facilitate understanding and are similarly represented in the Stacking diagrams, allowing for a clear correlation between the two sets of diagrams. This cohesive approach ensures consistency and clarity in communicating the spatial organization and functional layout of the building.

Stacking

The vertical sequencing of functional spaces, represented in Stacking diagrams, is just as crucial as the horizontal layout captured in floor plans. To ensure coherence and clarity, Stacking diagrams are directly tied to the Functional plans through color coding.

Structure

When we refer to Structure, we are addressing the spatial structure of functional spaces as well as the structural systems best suited to provide the optimal spatial structure for a given purpose. Here, Structure is akin to the concept of shell and core in an office building: it represents the bare bones, the skeleton that remains constant throughout the life of the building, unaffected by fitouts, expansions and other internal changes within the building. It is this foundational structure that supports and defines the spatial organization of the building, serving as the framework upon which all other elements are built and organized.

Shafts

Shafts consume a significant part of the lab building’s floor plate area. Their sizing and location play a critical role for the efficiency and flexibility of the lab building.

Fitout

Fitout encompasses all elements that come after the shell and core of a building are in place. This includes partition walls, secondary services distribution, additional stairs, and other interior components. Fitout elements are designed to be easily installed and removed, allowing for flexibility and adaptability to changing needs.

The changeability of lab or lab building fitout is crucial for modern labs, particularly in educational and commercial research settings. In an educational lab building, it's common for 10 to 15 percent of labs to be reconfigured at any given time. In a commercial research building, this percentage could be even higher, ranging from 20 to 25 percent. This adaptability allows organizations to respond quickly to evolving research requirements, accommodate new technologies, and optimize space utilization for maximum efficiency.

Parti

Parti refers to the fundamental essence of a building’s composition, distilled into a simplified graphic representation. If a plan does not lend itself to a complete and clear abbreviation, it may suggest that the design is overly complex or convoluted

Thoughts

What can be learned from the building plans? What are the relevant particulars of building composition that could be important in the development of new buildings with their specific programs, sites, and budgets? What aspects worked well, and what aspects worked less well?

Stats

We provide some numbers to contextualize the buildings and their compositional particulars in a comparative framework. When was it built, how large it is, how many researchers can work in how many labs, what is the ratio of total building area to useable and of building volume to total area? How do you achieve a lean and beautiful design?