Ten Qualities and Elements to Make Your Project Vibrant and Exceptional

By: Stephanie McDaniel, AIA,LEED AP

What makes a lab "exceptional" today?  

What was once a siloed environment where scientists quietly did their research is becoming a vibrant, cooperative community for intellectual cross-pollination. Not to deny who many of these scientists are as individuals, this evolution of what defines a superior lab today is a balance of collaborative, research-intensive spaces inside the lab and quiet spaces to work outside of it. 

In both corporate and higher education lab facilities, where research is the competitive differentiator, labs have evolved as a strategic tool to do more than facilitate the research. Today, they are both high-performance spaces and talent-attraction tools, helping an institution attract and retain talent that is essential to product development and a return on these intensive investments. 

Whether grant funded or capitalized through operations and profits, the challenge is the same, be it in higher education or corporate environments: to create a high-performance space that gives organizations the needed advantage to compete in a fast-evolving research landscape.  

Here are 10 qualities and elements that can make your next project vibrant and exceptional.

This infographic is part of a full-length article, available here: https://www.labmanager.com/lab-design-and-furnishings/vibrant-lab-spaces-for-cross-pollination-21462