Engineering’s New Space Needs

Published April 15, 2015 on labdesignnews.com.

Lab Design News published this article Jeff wrote about how space needs have changed in the engineering disciplines. We’ve shared an excerpt of the piece here.

In the past decade, the breadth of research focus areas within engineering has undergone a monumental transformation and expansion. PAYETTE has investigated these transitions at many levels from small scale highly technical research laboratory designs to multiple institutional master plans. The current demands of engineering laboratories present significant challenges for institutions because the currently occupied spaces were conceived during an era with radically different needs and required services.

Traditionally, engineering research laboratories consisted of a room, or rooms, dedicated to an investigator that were dry in nature and focused on their particular equipment. Now, engineering programs must provide new levels of flexibility and a much wider range of research laboratory typologies.

While these challenges are not a new phenomenon, by understanding the evolution of engineering research space we gain insight into the current laboratory landscape, its challenges and how to consider flexibility moving forward. The engineering “laboratory of the future” must take this understanding into perspective, but in order to move forward, designers must conceive a radically new proposition rather than pursuing an incremental step guided by the past.

Click to enlarge
Assessing the needs of today’s engineering space.

Read the full article here.