HDR associate directors Amy Papas and Simone Benvenuti discuss the immense honour of designing spaces for transformative research and the fusion of science and architecture.
There’s nothing more exciting than two disciplines uniting to galvanise innovation into action, particularly if that innovation is in the wonderfully niche world of laboratory design, where design and architecture shake hands with science and transform research into reality.
HDR is a national and global leader in combining design prowess with scientific knowledge, and is currently involved in multiple Australia-first laboratory design projects.
Amy Papas and Simone Benvenuti are big players in HDR’s global team of laboratory designers, and are both leading complex and significant projects. Papas is the project lead for the lab design of the Sydney Biomedical Accelerator (SBA) and Benvenuti is the project lead for the refurbishment of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP).
Amy Papas
Art versus science
Lab design is unequivocally interdisciplinary, as it’s where the language of design and architecture meets science.
“We take unique lab planning principles and tools, and help establish the foundations of a project from a science perspective,” says Amy Papas.
The discipline does not require specific qualifications or certifications, as nearly everything is learned, and occasionally unlearned, on-site.
“We help put the puzzle pieces together – we translate the scientific requirements and what the stakeholders need to the design team,” explains Papas.
Sydney Biomedical Accelerator
Lab planners can be likened to messengers, middle men or even diplomats, as they are fluent in the language of both designers and researchers, so they can articulate the necessities of the design and comprehend the spatial requirements, yet also absorb scientific language.
It’s an understatement to say that lab planning is multilayered. “You need to think of it conceptually as both a horizontal and vertical journey, getting the pieces such as safety protocols and engineering to fit and slide together. It’s not a plane, but a three-dimensional volume to determine how the services are connecting up and across,” says Simone Benvenuti.
Simone Benvenuti
Sydney Biomedical Accelerator
While still in the competition and concept design phase, this project is hotly anticipated and demonstrates an effective utilisation of HDR’s local and global expertise. It involves the design of a series of complex, flexible and adaptive biomedical laboratories at the Sydney Biomedical Accelerator (SBA). The University of Sydney and the local health district are hoping that consolidating multiple health disciplines under one roof at SBA will accelerate research outcomes.
Papas is excited by the assemblage of astute and enthusiastic minds who are already embracing lab planning with zest and zeal.
“The best part about this project is the intersection between clinical research and practice – transforming research into reality,” she says.
Sydney Biomedical Accelerator
Designing for the unknowns
Ensuring the labs are flexible and adaptive emerges as a challenge, as it is difficult to anticipate the needs of future users.
“Designing something that is flexible both during and after the design process is tricky. User requirements may change, or we may be designing for a stakeholder that hasn’t been locked down yet. We’re basically designing for the unknowns,” says Papas.
Designing spaces that can adapt to challenges over the next 10 to 30 years is another major hurdle in lab design, and something that is confronted in the early days of a project.
“We juggle the balance of getting it right on day one – making sure the design is future-proof throughout its life,” says Papas.
Alleviating operational carbon output
Laboratories are notoriously resource exhaustive and, from an operational and construction perspective, not the most carbon efficient spaces.
Papas is determined to play a part in alleviating the operational carbon output, however, and implement sustainability practices that users of the space can adhere to post-production.
Such practices include risk zoning, which allocates equipment and work that necessitate larger levels of ventilation and electricity to smaller and less resource intensive labs.
“We hope that we can lend a hand in changing operational perspectives to a more sustainable approach,” says Papas.
Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness
For the refurbishment of the centre’s laboratories, Benvenuti says maximising staff wellness was a key design driver, which resulted in the provision of views to the outside world for those working in the labs and exposure to natural light – transforming a regular workday for the better.
Additionally, such architectural gestures rid the labs of a stereotypically clinical and cold feeling, and reflect a more thoughtful, mindful and ‘human’ design. Benvenuti explains how the labs will be conducive to team- and theme-based activities, such as providing large and open space areas that can comfortably house multiple teams.
Benvenuti agrees with Papas that establishing future flexibility and adaptability is paramount; therefore, large open spaces are preferred as they allow for the seamless implementation of any new equipment over the next 10, 20 or 30 years.
CSIRO Centre for Disease Preparedness
She also confirms the project’s steadfast embrace of sustainable principles, such as thermal envelopes fulfilling energy efficiency and the incorporation of more lightweight materials to balance out the existing facility’s concrete structure, and avoid unnecessary demolition.
Overall, lab planning is grounded in modularity and a strategic navigation of the many constraints and restrictions.
“You have to ask how you can work within these rigid constraints and still find a space for creativity – and areas where you can bring in architecture and maintain an aesthetic beyond the technical needs for a project,” she adds.
Photography supplied by HDR.
This article originally appeared in Issue 174 of Architectural Review. Get your hands on a copy here.
