Laboratory Design Guide

Rating:
Summary: Book Review in "Chemistry in Australia"
Review: Laboratory Design Guide, B.Griffin (Architectural Press,1999) ISBN 0 7506 3858 3

Having moved in to a new laboratory for teaching and research 12 months ago, I wish that our faculty had had this book available to us 4 years ago while we were in the planning stage of the building. This would have given the laboratory staff insights into how buildings are built and how to go about consulting with the building designers, architects, engineering consultants, contractors and sub-contractors and all the other various people that most laboratory staff have little day-to-day experience with. It would have also improved the discussion on options for design of the laboratories and furniture by the faculty staff. The idea of adjustable benches would have been a better solution to our need to cater for disabled students than making a permanent low bench in each teaching laboratory which means these benches go unused if no disabled student is in the unit. The second half of the book is case studies and looking at new laboratories. Fourteen of the 17case studies are from Australia, all but two of these from NSW. How the architects responded to the needs of their clients and the different needs for different types of laboratories is discussed. The examples cover rnultifunctional tertiary teaching, research institutions, pure research, and commercial pathology and government laboratories. All the case studies are there to amplify points made earlier in the book. This book must be read in conjunction with the appropriate Australian Standards and the CCH manual and although it does not mention individual standards or CCH guidelines the text does give a good place to start your search of the standards and guidelines which are the definitive sources.

Neil Ludvigsen, Northern Territory University, Book review in "Chemistry in Australia"