Sessions

Labs of the future will demand highly versatile and fully integrated scientific and engineering research platforms – and the new space will need to be stacked with a variety of converging, constantly evolving, and at times incompatible research activities. In this session, James Blount and Ben Finch promote a new flexible space planning paradigm for the integrated, multidisciplinary, "team-centric" approach to scientific and engineering research that supports a common purpose. They identify novel processes and emerging technologies to consider; including scientific instrumentation, equipment, customized apparatus, and tools developed to better support the team-based converging research. 

Adaptive reuse represents a strategic opportunity to leverage existing buildings and upgrade space to modern teaching and educational standards, but there are obstacles to successful outcomes. In this presentation, leaders focus on a set of tools and decision points that can help guide the planning and design process including alignment of program and capacity, compliance with regulations, and achieving sustainability and environmental goals. They share a template for conducting condition assessments, recommend a methodology for marrying programs with an existing building, and demonstrate how to get more value from adaptive reuse than is often realized.

Makerspaces are on the rise in education facilities at all levels as hands-on training for arts and sciences is now considered an essential element for multidisciplinary learning – and these spaces pose a host of infrastructure, safety, and code challenges. Using a series of case studies, session leaders provide strategies for creating safe and successful, collaborative workspace for making, learning, investigating, and sharing that use a variety of high-tech to low-tech tools. They address metal and woodworking, three-D printing and additive manufacturing, spray painting, laser cutting, and other key processes. 

In this session, presenters deliver a case study of Franklin Antonio Hall, a new facility for the Jacob School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego focusing on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles, smart grids, and drones. They illustrate the programming and design of approximately 11 research collaboration laboratories (co-laboratories), faculty offices, student workstations, a high-bay lab, classrooms and executive education facilities, a lecture hall, and public spaces. They detail how the building serves as a living laboratory for advanced research in critical areas related to the digital future and is designed to foster interactions among and across the research teams, co-laboratories, and strategic industry partners.

Planning new STEM buildings is like playing 20-dimensional chess – and your next move will impact your campus for decades to come. Come to this session and learn how to predict the outcome of many options simultaneously. In this session, presenters demonstrate a new tool that considers risk, cost, headcount, allocations, program backfill, departmental objectives, timing, and campus utilities. They illustrate how this new methodology allows owners to test, visualize, and evaluate space scenarios (and more) in real time with powerful dashboard information. They detail custom-tailored models that show existing and future building programs, and phased deployments of lab and non-lab space in new and repurposed buildings. 

A shortage of healthcare professionals, a renewed focus on competency-based learning, and an emphasis on fast-tracked research is underscoring the need for advanced facilities that support specialized health sciences. This session explores planning, architecture, engineering, and operational considerations for a variety of specialized health science typologies including interprofessional healthcare simulation, pharmacy education, public health research, and veterinary medical education. Session leaders examine innovative designs for unique pedagogy, process-flow sensitivity, and cost-conscious efficiency. They identify tactics for engineering systems and energy-focused design, and explore a series of strategies for biosecurity, clinical-crossover, and accreditation compliance

Colleges and Universities across the country are competing for STEM-focused students and faculty, and critical to these efforts are cross-discipline convergence, student centered experiential learning, collaboration, and extended learning opportunities.  In this session, the RFD team presents emerging trends, planning solutions, and benchmarking studies for next generation STEM facilities, including design considerations for post-pandemic learning environments. They outline what key decisions to make and pitfalls to avoid to best leverage complex systems inherent to laboratory focused facilities, and present examples from dozens of recently completed and 'on-the-boards' projects from across the U.S.

What should owners budget for cost escalation in the post-pandemic economy? What are effective ways to procure projects in a post-pandemic market? Mounting pressure on construction costs will impact all research projects on the drawing boards and in the pipeline. Attend this session to see new pathways to better pricing and more accurate budget figures. The Vermeulens team delivers construction cost forecasts based on economic conditions, commodity prices, and cost data as the pandemic-induced recession comes to an end. They profile what organizations are doing to develop bid and procurement strategies that strategically minimize exposure to construction escalation.

As universities make decisions to renovate or build new, an approach that prioritizes embodied carbon impact, future user needs, and fiscal responsibility is key to achieving triple bottom line outcomes. In this session, presenters chart a strategic approach to renovating existing buildings that reduces waste and emissions associated with new construction. They demonstrate how adaptive reuse can celebrate the building's unique character and history while meeting contemporary needs of STEM teaching and research. They illustrate flexibility features with easily reconfigurable spaces and modular/prefabricated elements, and energy reduction techniques including energy-efficient lighting, HVAC systems, and automation. 

Academic leadership is taking a long hard look at what drives the decisions of stakeholders beyond just the paycheck or the degree. How does faculty, student, and industry experience in your facility factor into the bigger picture of program success, satisfaction, retention, and engagement? John Roberson and Grace Johnson challenge session participants to consider “What story is your facility telling the people who are pivotal to your high-priority initiatives?” They guide the group through a step-by-step experience design exercise on how to communicate key values in your space in a way that moves your donors, students, and faculty and that evokes them to action, creating an emotional connection with your institution.

Interdisciplinary Research. Constructive Collisions. Collaboration. We have all heard these buzzwords before but what does this truly mean when applied to new state-of-the-art laboratory research buildings, and how can this model drive greater innovation and discovery for both academia and industry? Session leaders call upon two case studies to demonstrate how programmatic drivers can shape planning and spur both collaboration and efficiency in academic and industry research environments. They identify how complex partnerships (academia and industry) encourage innovation and research and contribute to behavioral changes and communal interaction fostering collaborative work environments. 

Demand for research and STEM education space is rising across all disciplines, and this session sets out to demonstrate the planning and design processes used to incorporate the full menu of space types for research and teaching in one building. Session leaders demonstrate the methodology used to integrate a vivarium, insectarium, controlled environment rooms, planetarium, rooftop observatory, greenhouse, cleanrooms, an autopsy suite, lecture rooms, classrooms, science on display, event space, and a collaboration atrium in a single best-in-class building – the Towson University Science Complex – to serve in the fields of biology, physics, astronomy, geosciences, chemistry, and environmental sciences. 

This presentation contrasts two different programmatic strategies for managing growth and renewal in academic STEM institutions: 1) a multidisciplinary teaching and research building created to co-locate multiple departments, built around the idea of shared core facilities, and 2) a building where the teaching spaces of multiple departments were pulled out of existing buildings to create a vibrant student learning hub, and allow research to expand in backfill space. They demonstrate how each approach goes beyond satisfying functional needs to develop teaching and research communities, and align program with mission to reflect and enhance an institution's identity. 

The organization of campuses into "schools" by discipline is disappearing as institutions respond to the increasing success of cross-disciplinary discovery and the convergence of scientific disciplines. In this session, Jenifer Grafton and Gabriel Hohag demonstrate new planning and design processes for hybrid buildings that elevate the convergence concept. They illustrate the collocating of science and engineering programs to intentionally create an intersection of disciplines and break down traditional academic silos. They explore how to integrate multiple programs into a synergistic, inter-collaborative learning laboratory while offering a broad range of general use classrooms, lecture facilities, and student services. 

To keep up with the pace of scientific discovery and the formation of new science disciplines and space types, different approaches to STEM facility design must now be employed. In this session, Adam Denmark and Chris Vanneste explore the key drivers to enable a building's highest and best capabilities no matter how complex or ever-changing the program might be, including complex new spaces like the largest vacuum chamber of its kind. They demonstrate unique strategies for designing floor-to-floor heights, utility distribution, indoor/outdoor research areas, flexible lab benching, structure capacity and vibration, and engineering criteria.