Research Laboratories in the Age of the Invisible
David Martin, Anshen+Allen
Peter Rumsey, Rumsey Engineers
Research laboratories continue to pose the biggest challenge to energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions on academic campuses. How can they be designed to respond to diverse and conflicting imperatives including changing program components, transformative research methods, and alarming societal developments regarding climate change? As research practice evolves in an era characterized by sub-atomic imaging and fertile cross-disciplinary discovery, energy intensive laboratory facilities are increasingly challenged to be more energy and water efficient and to reduce carbon emissions. Despite a trend toward simulated research, these campus buildings are actually increasing their energy and carbon loads.
Science in the Age of the Invisible began as a hypothetical design exercise developed by San Francisco-based architects Anshen+Allen, Rumsey Engineers, Arup, and Davis Langdon. It was conducted to explore innovative design approaches to achieving low or net-zero carbon footprint research facilities, which are sustainable economically, socially, and environmentally, and able to adapt to unforeseen changes while enduring well beyond 2030 and toward 2060. The exercise evolved into a laboratory design exemplar, an integrated set of principles for creating exemplary environments for research and discovery in which pedagogy can evolve freely in harmony with the environment.
Phase 1 was a conceptual research and development exercise aimed at developing broad principals of exemplary laboratory design and examining evolving trends in scientific discovery and environmental change. Phase 2 was completed with an institutional partner, the Stanford School of Medicine, with whom the team jointly developed a conceptual approach to a real site on a real campus (with a hypothetical program). The Phase 2 work embodies the innovative principals articulated in Phase 1 and begins to demonstrate their practical application in redefining the research laboratory in response to these changes in paradigm.
The presentation will provide a limited overview of the Phase 1 concepts while emphasizing the Phase 2 application of the principals to a real situation. It will address the sweeping changes in research method and the facilities which support them over the past century with a view toward understanding the evolutions to come and how they will affect facility and campus planning. It will demonstrate innovative design and planning strategies aimed at enhancing the research and discovery environment while reducing energy consumption in high-performance academic research facilities. And it will discuss the practical application of sustainable design and planning concepts to the Pacific coastal Mediterranean climate zone.
Biographies:
David Martin leads the planning and design of higher education and research facilities in North America and the United Kingdom. These projects are characterized by their innovative approach to interdisciplinary work, and Mr. Martin has a particular interest in designing spaces that enhance interaction and facilitate the scientific discovery process. In the role of design principal, he has recently completed the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre at the University of Manchester and the Cambridge Research Institute for the University of Cambridge. Mr. Martin has Bachelor of Architecture degree from Syracuse University School of Architecture.
Peter Rumsey is a national leader in the design of low-energy buildings and the founder of Rumsey Engineers in Oakland, California. Rumsey Engineers was the first engineering firm in the United States to achieve four LEED® Platinum projects. Mr. Rumsey has designed mechanical systems for data centers, clean rooms, and laboratories that are among the most energy efficient in the United States. His firm's projects have received many local and national awards from prominent industry organizations, including the Association of Energy Engineers and AIA. He is a registered professional engineer in 10 states, a certified energy manager, a Senior Fellow of Rocky Mountain Institute, and an ASHRAE Fellow. He is a graduate of the University of California (UC) at Berkeley's mechanical engineering program and is a frequent lecturer at industry events, conferences, and colleges and universities, including UC Berkeley and Stanford University. The focus of Mr. Rumsey's career has been transforming the building industry by designing affordable, energy-efficient buildings.