Achieving Ambitious STEM Objectives Efficiently & Economically
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(FIGURE 1): ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH LAB
Is it possible to design a learning and research center that maximizes efficiency while accelerating interdisciplinary discovery that often happens within informal spaces outside classrooms and labs? Colleges and universities are recognizing the need to provide informal research and learning places in addition to flexible labs and classrooms. The design of many campus facilities are advancing with budgets that originated a number of years ago under very tight financial constraints. This challenges institutions and their design teams to search for new ways to celebrate and display science, accelerate learning and discovery and create totally interactive environments inside and outside of the labs and classrooms. A common objective is to achieve this vision without the luxury of large spaces and generous budgets. Some of the objectives shared by many colleges and universities include:
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• Integrating teaching and research. • Displaying science and sustainability measures. • Providing collaborative learning and research spaces. • Creating a variety of strategically located informal interaction places. • Utilizing outdoor spaces defined by science centers so that learning and discovery also occurs outside
Creating a Variety of Strategically Located Interaction Places for Discovery Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and noted 20th-century thinker: “The least of the work of learning is done inside the classroom.”1
Science and Technology | Achieving Ambitious STEM Objectives Efficiently & Economically
Lawrence A. Tabak, DDS, PhD, Principal Deputy Director of the National Institutes of Health: “Biological, physical and information sciences have converged …This demands that we break down barriers among disciplines…to challenge ourselves to find even more innovative and effective ways of doing biomedical research and converting that into cures.”2
Reducing Initial Costs, Increase Efficiency & Accelerate Learning & Discovery A rapid increase in computation work necessitates an increase in space to perform it, which is generally offset by a decrease in wet lab space. There is an ongoing transformation of space design resulting in more flexible open environments that take advantage of increases in technology and respond to the better results of interdisciplinary team-based learning and research. This trend should enable science buildings to have fewer walls and segregated spaces and lower initial capital costs—so long as the new spaces have been designed to maximize their use and minimize rooms that are In the Past
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Instrument Era
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INFORMAL DISCOVERY SPACE LABS
Evolution of Science
A study conducted in 2008 by BusinessWeek (now Bloomberg Business), and since widely cited elsewhere including in Harvard Business Review, reported 82% of respondents needed to partner with others to get their work done3. Design teams can help colleges and universities create facilities that support this new way of working—facilities that are more efficient, open and collaborative by reinforcing the natural tendencies of next-generation learners and researchers, while also responding to the desire of administrators and lab directors for more shared collaborative space and less dedicated/ segregated space. Even principal investigators who once clamored for as much assigned space as they could acquire are now often asking for less space because they have become focused on the high cost of dedicated space. The key to making this design approach successful while locating non-lab functions out of the labs is to achieve the necessary immediate adjacencies and transparencies between the support spaces and the labs. Exciting explorations are currently underway to find ideal design solutions for different levels of quiet and busy work areas and for the arrangement of those spaces that accommodate a variety of functions outside the labs such as personal workspace, team space and collaboration space that are enriched and made possible by mobile devices, laptop computers, cloud computing, wireless connectivity and digital projection.
Evidence of Success Some characteristics that appear in STEM facilities that are accelerating learning and discovery in a cost-effective way are:
Computational and Informal Team-Based Discovery LAB SUPPORT
under-utilized and corridors that have no other purpose other than circulation.
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• Facilities targeting net-to-gross efficiency figures of 65% or more. • Reduced proportion of wet lab space and increased proportion of shared instrument
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space and spaces that accommodate non-lab functions that once were within expensive lab space with higher ventilation and energy costs. • Activate circulation space with useful informal work space that was once housed in underutilized dedicated space.
Interdisciplinary Learning and Research Ranked among the best colleges and graduate schools in the North by U.S. News and World Report, Stockton University in Galloway Township, N.J., is committed to interdisciplinary learning. This approach is highlighted in its mission statement: “To teach beyond the traditional bounds of one’s area of formal expertise, across disciplinary lines and to interrelate the traditional disciplines.“
Granting almost 25% of the science and mathematics undergraduate degrees conferred in New Jersey, it is imperative the design of the science facilities on the Stockton campus support this mission and express its overall vision while celebrating its leading position in science and its special commitment to unifying sciences. And these facilities must achieve such expressions under capital limitations. The multi-disciplinary Science, Math, and Sustainability Gateway Complex expresses this philosophy in part by creating a pair of gateway buildings that form the campus green and appear as outstretched arms welcoming students and faculty into an interactive environment. The campus entrance is framed by two large “gateway windows” that show a glimpse into the university and the science within the complex. These large framed openings refer in scale and material to the
(FIGURE 2): ADVANCED PHYSICS LASER OPTICS LAB
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Science and Technology | Achieving Ambitious STEM Objectives Efficiently & Economically
(FIGURE 3): AERIAL VIEW OF THE INTERDISCIPLINARY STEM CAMPUS Campus Center entrance at the opposite end of the Campus Green. The inner energy within the buildings spills into the campus green and activates outdoor collaboration places that become extensions of the informal discovery spaces within the unified science complex. The project design strives to maximize space efficiency in the labs and respond to a movement toward computational work done outside of the labs and classrooms in “found spaces”—ranging from quiet nooks to busy thoroughfares—that connect formal research and teaching spaces. This is accomplished within a tight net-to-gross factor that’s driven by capital constraints. As a result of their efficiency, the labs are intensely equipped with instruments while being designed with significant glass walls. This maximizes safety and transparency, increases interaction between faculty and students and accelerates the exchange of knowledge. Instead of segregating disciplines, the unified science building closely juxtaposes its wide range of groups including biochemistry/ molecular, biology, chemistry, environmental science, geology, marine science, mathematics, applied physics and sustainability. The result is an intense merging of activities and a sense of
interactive discovery within precisely designed spaces—just one example of how the design for new science facilities are reinforcing the way next-generation scientists and researchers learn and work.
(FIGURE 4): ANIMAL MOTION STUDY LAB WITH EX-VIVO XROMM FLUOROSCOPE
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Science and Technology | Achieving Ambitious STEM Objectives Efficiently & Economically
Contact For more information please reach out to our leaders in the Science and Technology practice area.
STEVEN GIFFORD AIA, NCARB Principal | Practice Area Leader Science and Technology s.gifford@perkinseastman.com
SHEFALI RAICHAUDHURI AIA, LEED AP Associate Principal s.raichaudhuri@perkinseastman.com
Graphic design by: Hailey Schwartz PHOTO CREDITS Cover: Perkins Eastman ©Andrew Rugge Figure 1: Perkins Eastman © Sarah Mechling Figure 2: Perkins Eastman ©Andrew Rugge Figure 3: Perkins Eastman ©Andrew Rugge Figure 4: Perkins Eastman ©Courtesy Perkins Eastman Back Cover: Perkins Eastman ©Joseph Romeo END NOTES 1: Clifton Sankofa, Classroom Quotes about the Importance of Education, (Everyday Power, 2022) https://everydaypower.com/classroom-quotes/ 2: Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD, as Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 3: Lynda Gratton & Tamara J. Erickson, Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams (Harvard Business review, 2007) https://hbr.org/2007/11/eight-ways-to-build-collaborative-teams ©2022 Perkins Eastman. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the authors have used their best efforts in preparing this paper, they make no representations or warranties with the respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this paper and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the copyright holder no the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom.
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