We recently completed a study for a local college to bring better science education to the small college. On the heels of Massachusetts’ Governor Duval Patrick’s recently announced commitment to providing greater funding for science labs at the local college and community college level, such a study has increased importance. Massachusetts and the Boston-Cambridge area […]
Nearly 20 years ago, as a young designer at Payette, I had the opportunity focus on the design the teaching laboratories for Vanderbilt University’s new chemistry building. It gives me great pride to know that the innovations that we achieved in those designs have become the model for nearly all the organic chemistry teaching labs […]
Boston – Incubator. Shared work-zones. Open office space. Flexible work environments. These are the buzzwords of the new workplace. One of the top cities for entrepreneurs, Boston is rapidly embracing a fresh paradigm for nurturing new businesses, one that has strong design and social implications…The tech innovation incubator concept has grown to encompass shared lab […]
“More you” is the catchphrase for the launch of the Windows 8 ad campaign, and it captures a trend that has been strengthening over the last year. The ability to speedily share aspects of our lives with friends and strangers through sites like Facebook, Circles, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram allows us to define and broadcast an image of ourselves that is intended for public consumption. Our start screen, our playlists and our choice of apps makes a strong and intentional statement about who we are and how we’d like to be perceived. Here are five trends to watch for in the A/E/C industry in 2013.
The more I read and learn about the looming Fiscal Cliff, the more concerned I get for our local design and construction economy. Two weeks ago, sixteen of the presidents of leading academic institutions in the Boston area co-signed a letter to Representative Ed Markey articulating the grave impact sequestration would have on the research community. While the authors of the letter did not focus on the role of capital projects in a thriving and expansive innovation economy, it is important to understand that much of the resurgence of construction activity going on here now is directly due to that leveraged inflow of federal and private dollars.
Almost exactly one year ago today we wrote an article about test fits for biotechnology. Focusing on how Revit can assist in the analysis of space, our article demonstrated how, through BIM software, we can develop simultaneously plans, three dimensional space and program. Since then, our office has continued to work with clients on multiple such test fits, often recreating their spaces in three or four different locations. Interestingly, this opportunity has allowed us to see how the expression of a company’s vision is transformed through its location, from one property to the next.
When we began our firm over a year ago, we spent time thinking about how we want to represent ourselves. The development of a clear identity was important for both expressing our uniqueness and solidifying the concept of our company. Likewise, the process of designing for a client is an opportunity to assist in clarifying their own sense of who they are and shape how they are perceived. We have found that many of our clients are looking to us to find this collaboration. As architects, we enjoy the challenge, and two very different projects show how such exploration can drive a design process.
“Let’s meet in the Chill Center” is a frequent request we hear from one of our Cambridge-based R&D clients. The “Chill Center” is a 1,500sf somewhat nondescript, cafeteria area set in the middle of an open office environment near a lab zone. Furnished only with school cafeteria style tables, a kitchenette and a bank of vending machines (all items sold for 25 cents), the Chill Center is constantly buzzing with activity as scientists and engineers work out issues of R&D, often with unsolicited commentary from adjacent work cubicles. In our experience, it is one of the mostly highly collaborative and productive work environments out there.
At Lab, we recently celebrated our first year in business and are able to reflect upon our strategies for success. As a start-up, we had the opportunity to design and define a new model for delivering architectural services. We considered all aspects of the practice, from the details of technical infrastructure to our method of articulating design choices with our clients. Wanting to focus our time and effort on design and client relationships, we sought to create a company that is nimble and free of technological and infrastructural issues. Coming into being in the virtual age, Lab is built on the idea of portability and effective harnessing of the internet.
Physicists are proud to call their field the “mother of the sciences,” and based upon our recent experience they have every right to boast. From medical device companies, laboratory equipment manufacturers, biotech startups to software development corporations, the role of physics has trended upward and is now a significant driver of laboratory design for many of our projects. This is an important new direction for lab design because the requirements for physical labs are fundamentally different from traditional life science spaces.
