Laboratory Trends

Design suggestions for space planning.

Published May 2007 Locating chemistry labs on the top floor may increase available square footage.

Leading research organizations are planning new lab buildings on the assumption that less space will be devoted to wet labs. In multi-story lab buildings, consider putting chemistry labs on the top floor to minimize the loss of floor area in the building due to vertical chases for ducting. Also, lab occupancy density is a big performance criteria where a 5% to 10% reduction in gross square feet per occupant has a big financial impact.

- From Tradeline's Research Buildings 2007 Conference