The Polarization of the Research Environment

Published January 14, 2015 on labdesignnews.com

In this month’s column for Lab Design News we explore what the next decade of lab design might look like given that specific, idiosyncratic needs for equipment space is growing.

One of the perennial questions in the lab design conversation is “what’s the future of the research lab?” One viewpoint on this issue is the research lab environment will become more “polarized.” In other words, the generic research lab will become more generic, and the specialized research lab spaces will become more specialized and idiosyncratic.

In order to fairly answer the “future lab” question, we first need to look at some of the developments and shifts in thinking about the lab environment that have occurred.

While there are many factors that could potentially change the outcome of this discussion, it’s safe to consider the following factors, at least for the near-term future (five to seven years):

• As research grant funding in the U.S. is predicted to be “flat,” financial resources to duplicate specialized instrumentation are more limited than the previous decade.
• General lab equipment is being designed to require less support from the space into which it’s located.
• Energy costs are predicted to increase over the next five to seven years in most locations in the U.S.
• The focus on “research outcomes” places increasing pressure on productivity in the research lab and spaces allotted to achieve that goal.

So what do these factors mean for the generic research lab? In simple terms, less of more. Whereas the lab of the past created a robust and environmentally stable place in which a seemingly endless variety of needs could be accommodated; we’ve now entered an era of “uberflexibility.”

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