Laboratory Work in Flux: Performance in Laboratory Work and its Effect on Laboratory Design

Joerg Castor, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering
  
This presentation is based majorly on two Fraunhofer surveys with life science researchers and laboratory managers. These surverys were carried out in 2005 and 2007 in Europe. The presentation is also based on research done in the so-called "Lab Innovation Centre"—a "laboratory for laboratories" in Stuttgart, Germany.

Laboratory environments have to be largely designed with a focus on mechanical, functional, and safety issues. Notwithstanding, the importance of these factors in developments in the last years show more and more that there are significant changes in laboratory work, which require a broader approach towards the design of laboratories and research buildings.

The presentation will show changes in activity clusters of researchers and what researchers and managers consider being important topics for innovation and change in their laboratory environments. It will also present the outcomes of a performance analysis of scientists in life science (research) laboratories. The basic question is: What factors are primarily influencing their performance and how can laboratory design recognize these factors? A laboratory design that considers the performance of researchers, and thus fosters efficiency, is an important factor in supporting sustainability.

Biography:

Joerg Castor obtained a spatial engineering degree from the University of Dortmund in 2000 and started work at a consulting company where he was concerned with organizational real estate planning. Since 2001, he has worked for the Fraunhofer-Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation IAO (Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering). His main focus of research includes human-centric work design, the process-related planning of work
environments, holistic workplace design, as well as the organizational optimization of architectural concepts. He is specialized in hybrid work environments, including the spatial and process-related interaction between research and design, and the administrative and production units of organizational entities. Joerg has managed numerous research and consulting projects for the public and private sectors. He is a regular lecturer at national and international conferences and is regularly writing scientific publications. He is initiator and project manager of the combined research project "Lab2020" that is concerned with the future of lab work and design. He also initiated the Lab Innovation Center (LIC) in Stuttgart, Germany —a lifescience-based test bed and demo center for laboratory work and design.

Back to Agenda