New science, old buildings: Renovating for efficiency, flexibility, and connection

What does the research space of the future look like? And can it be housed in older buildings (or does it require new construction)?

In a previous article, I laid out a series of concerns that need to be considered when designing for the future of higher education research spaces. On the one hand, I described the close relationship between scientific research and the space in which it takes place, establishing the need for those spaces to evolve to keep up with changing research methods and agendas. This established the need for updated research spaces (if not new ones altogether). On the other hand, I described the difficult financial situation in which many colleges and universities find themselves. Overbuilt and underfunded, they face a growing backlog of deferred maintenance costs and an impending decline in enrollment.

In short, while acknowledging the need to invest in research facilities, I also suggested the wisdom of considering renovations rather than defaulting to new construction. Smart renovations of existing spaces can do a lot to increase their efficiency and productivity while turning them into spaces that boost collaboration and attract talent.

Effective renovations of research spaces offer an opportunity to:

1. Recalibrate existing lab space, increasing efficiency and productivity.

Though I described the accelerating changes in how labs work (from technological changes to the expectation that they provide a healthier, more supportive environment), the fact is that labs have been changing for a long time.

Academic labs, in particular, tend to grow through a long process of accretion. They often slowly expand into empty adjacent spaces or add new instruments wherever they happen to fit. So, rather than fitting new machines into the workflow of an existing space, researchers often end up working around the new machine (wherever it lands). In my experience, researchers are quite inventive in figuring out how to adapt their space to accommodate additional equipment, but that doesn’t necessarily produce the optimal environment for research discoveries.

Thinking in terms of square footages instead of process can result in workspaces that are frustrating, hindering researchers’ ability to perform their best work.

A large-scale renovation of a research building offers a good chance to reset. Unlike those small decisions, where furniture and equipment are added here and there, comprehensive renovations allow the design team and user groups to re-envision lab processes, creating more ideal workflows.

Our renovation of Hammerschlag Hall to create a new home for TechSpark—Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) largest makerspace—offers a good illustration of this. The century-old building had undergone a patchwork of additions and renovations, resulting in a space that was frequently disorienting and cramped. While expanding makerspaces and machine shops, our renovation created a more open and intuitive floor plan that gave researchers the room they needed to work efficiently, comfortably, and safely. In fact, a study of the renovated space, published in The Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society reported that, “the rate of research output has increased dramatically” and “the facility is being used extensively for hands-on, graduate-level instruction.”

2. Prioritize flexibility, build in adaptability.

With the current pace of innovation, flexibility is more critical than ever. By way of illustration, we recently designed an additives lab for CMU at Mill 19—a state of the art, off-campus facility housed within the remains of a former steel mill—and we had to update the equipment order several times before the lab was even built. It wasn’t a long project, but the pace of technological change is just that quick!

This is characteristic of the changes that are affecting research across the board. From the ever-expanding capacity of rapid prototyping equipment to increasingly networked and automated research processes, the infrastructure of research is quickly changing. This makes it essential that renovations take pains to create a space that can accommodate changes in the way we work.