Designing Tomorrow's Science Hubs: A Comprehensive Guide to Undergraduate Science Building Design

Undergraduate science buildings are evolving beyond traditional classrooms and laboratories. These facilities are becoming dynamic, interactive hubs that foster collaboration, innovation, and immersive learning experiences. This article explores the key considerations in designing these modern science buildings, from initial site selection to the integration of cutting-edge technologies and sustainable practices.

Site Selection and Justification

The selection of a site for an undergraduate science building is a crucial first step. Factors such as accessibility, proximity to existing science facilities, and the overall campus master plan must be considered. For instance, the decision to locate the Undergraduate Academic Building at UC Berkeley on the Dwinelle Parking Lot was based on the University's Long Range Development Plan and Campus Master Plan, which identified the site as suitable for a new academic building, given its size, scope, and budget.

Addressing Existing Infrastructure Needs

New science buildings often serve to address deficiencies in existing infrastructure. Evans Hall at UC Berkeley, for example, required seismic improvements and suffered from deferred maintenance, inefficient classrooms, and outdated building systems. The new Undergraduate Academic Building is designed to replace all general assignment classrooms in Evans Hall and house the College of Letters & Sciences advising functions, ultimately leading to the relocation of all programs currently housed in Evans Hall. This proactive approach addresses critical infrastructure needs while creating modern learning spaces.

Minimizing Construction Impact

Construction projects inevitably impact surrounding buildings and occupants. To mitigate these effects, project teams should prioritize open and transparent communication. Regular meetings between the project team and building managers of adjacent buildings are essential for reviewing construction schedules, addressing concerns, and resolving issues. Sharing updated schedules and construction diagrams with building managers allows them to proactively inform occupants and minimize disruptions.

The Vision of a Modern Science Building

The new Biological Sciences building exemplifies the vision of a modern science building. The new five-story facility will house the Department of Biological Sciences, the new Arthur and Phyllis Kaplan Orchid Conservatory, and state-of-the-art classrooms teaching labs, research labs and the College of Sciences Dean’s Office Suite. The area outside the building around the pond will be landscaped to provide a beautiful place for events.

Fostering Collaboration and Innovation

Modern science buildings should promote increased collaborative research. Flexible spaces, such as those planned for the Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Center, enable researchers and students to work together seamlessly. The inclusion of unique features, such as the Kaplan Orchid Conservatory, can further enhance the building's appeal and create a stimulating environment for learning and discovery.

Incorporating Advanced Technologies

The integration of advanced technologies is crucial for creating dynamic and immersive learning spaces. Features such as state-of-the-art classrooms, collaborative workspaces, cutting-edge laboratories, a natural history museum, research greenhouse space, and a core facility for shared equipment will greatly enhance teaching and research capabilities. Academic laboratory buildings are living laboratories that advertise, enable, excite and inform everyone within range. They include both research and teaching labs.

Designing for Flexibility and Adaptability

Flexibility is a key consideration in modern laboratory design. Academic laboratories should incorporate a variety of space types to meet the needs of students, teachers, faculty, staff, and visitors.

Interactive Learning Environments

The passive, front-facing lecture/discussion room is becoming obsolete, yielding to team-based interactive learning theaters where everyone can see the faces and hear the words of all in the room and those connected by the web. At Wallenberg Hall at Stanford University, there is no fixed furniture and the space can serve formal presentations, dynamic team based activities and support virtual concerts. Rooms like this are designed to allow small teams to work together in addition to dynamic full room discussions. Sophisticated audio speakers and microphones, image capture cameras and immediate digital connections to science communities around the world are the norm. In medium-to-large lecture rooms, triple projector screens are common with combination rear projection and or flat panel monitor systems often served by multiple computers with a single wireless control for the lights, blackout screens, and electronic media.

Adaptable Laboratory Frameworks

Today's teaching laboratory acts as a flexible framework, holding dynamic student work groups, research zones, and support equipment in unlimited arrangements. Plan for the unexpected. Too many buildings are designed for current needs and technologies. As disciplinary barriers dissolve, there is a greater need for labs and experimental spaces to stage special short and long-term events.

Read also: Undergraduate Programs at UNC

Personal Digital Devices

Personal digital devices that merge all computing, communication, and locating technologies will soon be common. Sustainable design is a basic responsibility and should serve as a research, teaching, and policy-changing tool. Teaching laboratories differ from research labs in a number of ways. They require space for teaching equipment, such as a lectern and marker boards; they require storage space for student microscopes, book bags, and coats; and they have less instrumentation than in research labs.

Promoting Interaction and Collaboration

Interaction of learners and teachers occupying the same room has become more intentional, flexible and transparent to eliminate barriers and energize immediate and seamless collaboration. Classrooms must provide a greater level of visual and auditory contact between those sharing the room, and those beyond, to meet a higher standard of service to collaboration. Virtual reality and computer simulation technologies require more flexible space to serve these rapidly growing fields. Lighting and acoustic control must be more sophisticated and flexible in every room, to allow the varied technologies to perform at their best. Powerful image capture and audio technology is becoming more pervasive in rooms, including offices, where people share information. Acoustic control and the design of the HVAC systems must be more sophisticated and flexible in every room, to allow the varied technologies to perform at their best. The sound level in laboratories-including those with fume hoods-must be as low as the classrooms' to allow normal conversations and collaboration. Lighting systems are more energy efficient and typically include daylight sensors and occupancy sensors.

Mobile and Adaptable Furniture

Some disciplines will require fixed casework, benches, and utilities, but many teaching labs have mobile casework (equipped with locks) installed in a way that allows for different teaching environments and for multiple classes to be taught in the same space. Some teaching labs even use casework that a student can easily change in height to accommodate sit-down (30 in.) or stand-up (36 in.) work. The flexibility of the furniture encourages a variety of teaching and learning scenarios. In fact, properties of traditional, fixed lab furniture (stability and vibration resistance) are merging with properties of rolling/adjustable computer furniture (infinite mobility, plug and play capability, changeability) to create a new type of furniture for most scientific pursuits. This new breed blends the need for computer connections to everything with the ability to change the individual and team work environment immediately, or move it to another space.

Space Allocation and Design Considerations

Depending on the discipline and number of students, shared bench space can range from 15 to 30 linear feet per teaching laboratory; is usually configured as perimeter wall bench or center island bench; and is used for benchtop instruments, exhibiting displays, or distributing glass materials. Ten to 20 linear feet of wall space per lab should be left available for storage cabinets, as well as for built-in and movable equipment such as refrigerators and incubators. A typical student workstation is 3 to 4 feet wide with a file cabinet and data and electrical hookups for computers. Fume hoods shared by two students should be at least 6 ft. wide. For undergraduate courses, write-up areas are usually provided inside the lab. A teaching lab must accommodate more people (i.e., students) and stools than does a typical research lab. Prep rooms, which allow faculty to set up supplies before classes, may be located between two teaching labs. The number of students typically enrolled in a course usually determines the size of the teaching lab used for that course. A typical lab module of 10 ft. 6 in. x 30 ft. (320 net square feet [nsf]) may support four to six students. An organic chemistry lab for 24 students would be approximately 1,600 nsf. Usually there is very little, if any, overhead shelving in the center of a lab.

Optimizing Mechanical Systems

As budgets tighten and continuing education and distance learning continue to grow in popularity, however, evening and Saturday classes may become more common in many colleges and universities. Moreover, some teaching labs being designed today will also be used for research. Because of these reasons, mechanical systems should be designed to be able to run at full capacity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Also, a flexible design is recommended to accommodate enrollment fluctuations. A separate discussion room shared by several teaching labs may be an alternative to accommodating lectures in the lab. Teaching labs may be located adjacent to research labs in order to share resources.

Blurring the Lines Between Teaching and Research

As science instruction focuses more on hands-on experience, the traditional distinction between teaching and research labs becomes less important. An increasing number of institutions are integrating these areas to enhance undergraduate curricula and to facilitate communication between faculty and students at all levels. The greatest variances between teaching and research labs are space allocation and equipment needs. To compensate for those differences, some new facilities are designed with greater flexibility to allow lab space to be more adaptable and productive.

Creating a Showcase for Learning

Few things are more compelling than a public display of learning. Large and small scale events and interactions should be encouraged by a building's easy access to simple technologies, including power and wireless networks - inside, outside, and at the student center and local café. Entrances and public greeting spaces must make the first impression unforgettable. A mix of scientific displays, interactive flat panel screens and real-time or digital video views into best teaching and research labs in action should be a basic requirement.

Integrating Technology Seamlessly

Smart board technology allows immediate capture of the projected image and anything written on the surface while surfing the web. Movable tables, equipment carts, and mobile lab casework will change the way students interact overnight, in response to pedagogical, curricular, or technology changes. Many teaching and research labs that do not require water and piped gases at each student position have fixed permanent casework and plumbing at the perimeter of the room only, with movable tables and wheeled casework providing the student work stations. The room configurations are limited only by the room size and our imagination. Overhead service carriers provide the hard-wired services needed at the movable tables.

Empowering Educators

Teachers no longer have to be anchored to the podium or fixed technology platform. Using wireless computing and media controls, drawing and noting on the projected image or multiple images from any computer source in the room are possible. Wireless projectors provide picture-in-picture displays, are partnered with ceiling-mounted document cameras and can receive and project images from any wireless tablet or laptop in the room. Labs now combine the best media control features of a technology-rich classroom with those of the most flexible lab. A lab may include one or two full teaching stations for projected and/or chalkboard presentations. The media systems and lighting for the lab are managed by a media control system that can be wall-mounted, desk-mounted or included in a remote wireless pad which can be carried around the room. Internet resources, past lectures, and the full media infrastructure of the campus is easily accessed and displayed in any lab or classroom in the building. Faculty (and students) can be anywhere in the room and control the presentation technology for their teaching lab or classroom.

Designing for Research and Discovery

Research labs must include a robust technological infrastructure accessible on-demand for an unpredictable range of unique opportunities. In some cases all elements of a research setting may be on wheels or demountable. An example of this plug-and-play approach in use in a pure research setting is the Bio-X initiative at the Clark Center at Stanford. The building was planned for almost any research use, without making any space specific to any single use or discipline. Special scientific equipment that was typically held in a few rooms designed only for that purpose is now distributed in instrument rooms, student faculty research labs and teaching labs. Clients are pushing project design teams to create research laboratories that are responsive to current and future needs; that encourage interaction among scientists from various disciplines; that help recruit and retain qualified scientists; and that facilitates partnerships and development.

Balancing Open and Closed Lab Spaces

Florida Atlantic University has created a new concept that combines both open and closed labs to accommodate core research teams. Many researchers still prefer to have some research space of their own. Consequently, 640 nsf are provided for each researcher, primarily for his or her own use and specific equipment. Another 640 nsf have been programmed for each researcher, located in a large open lab. This lab has fume hoods, laminar flow hoods, equipment, and casework to be shared by the entire research team. There can be a variety of research core areas (82 ft. Another idea implemented in this facility is a two-directional grid that allows the casework to be organized in either the north/south or east/west orientation. The labs are arranged with 50 percent casework and 50 percent equipment zones. The equipment zones allow the research team to locate equipment, mobile casework, or fixed casework in their lab when they move in. The equipment and future casework will be funded with other budgets or grants. This concept is very important for this project for two reasons. First, the university has not yet hired the faculty, so the specific research requirements are still unknown. Second, this concept reduces the casework cost in the initial construction budget by at least 40 percent ($600,000).

Leveraging Technology in Design

The interior design is being developed with the use of the three-dimensional (3-D) modeling. Computer modeling gives the design team, and most importantly, the client, an opportunity to study all aspects of the interior spaces as they will exist when the project is completed. Concept diagrams for all the engineering systems are fully coordinated at the end of the schematic design phase. Creating these diagrams gets the engineers involved in the design, makes sure the design team has fully coordinated all systems in the building (not just architectural), and should simplify coordination for the rest of the project. The intent here is to be proactive early in the design process so as to reduce the number of change orders during construction.

Codes, Standards, and Guidelines

Adhering to relevant codes, standards, and guidelines is essential for ensuring the safety and functionality of research laboratories. The following agencies and organizations have developed codes and standards affecting the design of research laboratories. Note that the codes and standards are minimum requirements.

Guidelines for the Laboratory Use of Chemical Carcinogens, Pub. No. 81-2385.
Building Type Basics for Research Laboratories, 2nd Edition by Daniel Watch.
CRC Handbook of Laboratory Safety, 5th ed. by A. Keith Furr.
Design and Planning of Research and Clinical Laboratory Facilities by Leonard Mayer.
Design for Research: Principals of Laboratory Architecture by Susan Braybrooke.
Guidelines for Laboratory Design: Health and Safety Considerations, 4th Editionby Louis J. DiBerardinis, et al.
Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratory Facilities by The American Institute of Architects, Center for Advanced Technology Facilities Design.
Handbook of Facilities Planning, Vol. 1: Laboratory Facilities by T. Ruys.
Laboratories, A Briefing and Design Guide by Walter Hain.
Laboratory Design, Construction, and Renovation: Participants, Process, and Product by National Research Council, Committee on Design, Construction, and Renovation of Laboratory Facilities.
Planning Academic Research Facilities: A Guidebook by National Science Foundation.
Science and Engineering Research Facilities at Colleges and Universities by National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies.

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