The Laboratory Timeline Architecture for Scientific Research Past, Present & Future 1 Prologue
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The Laboratory Timeline Architecture for Scientific Research Past, Present & Future 1 Prologue 2 Historical Introduction The Scientific Method and Early Labs 3 The Lab Timeline Purpose-Built Labs, Mid-19th Century to Present 4 The Lab Timeline Buildings Stories, Details and Floor Plans 5 What is the Lab of the Future? 6 Epilogue 1 Prologue 4 5 The Laboratory Timeline was born from a few today with new conviction and intent. The second fundamental questions. As architects, we had is that one can’t ignore that great science and noticed that the lab building typology had not been research occurred in certain buildings and spaces comprehensively researched and that the available that are now legacy and that those environments literature on the subject was scattered. We felt compelled engendered discovery and invention. Certainly to investigate this typology and the ways it has been the individual researcher’s imagination or the shaped by research priorities and architectural ambitions research group’s collective minds and inquiries over time, and we began by asking: played a critical role, but the design of the physical environment must have contributed in some way How have research labs, the “knowledge production too. The Lab Timeline therefore tracks the history 1 centers” of our physical environment, evolved from of scientific discovery and invention alongside the solitary spaces in unlikely locations to the scientific history of lab architecture. The physical location of communities and major segments of institutional the “Fly Lab” in Columbia University’s monumental fabric that they are today? Schermerhorn Hall and the building's proximity to What can be learned from labs designed and built in museological collections as well as other natural- previous generations, and even within the past decade, science departments surely played a role in the great to best inform our building designs? discoveries in genetics that occurred there. The lab itself was cramped and tiny, but perhaps that helped What is happening now in scientific research that can accelerate the research by encouraging frequent help shape the labs of the future? conversation amongst the research team during their The Lab Timeline examines the building typology long days in the lab. Can this example be applied 2 from its roots in the mid- to late 19th century, when to new planning and design ideas for labs today? A retaining wall bisects the campus along the north-south axis, revealing a change in topography (1930s) purpose-built structures for scientific research were Perhaps not literally, but certainly the model exists as just beginning to emerge, to present-day lab buildings, a source of inspiration. and, finally, ahead to the future. We should be reminded As architects of lab buildings we are committed to that the architecture for scientific research is only about designing and building for the future of science. It’s 160 years old—an extremely young building typology been said that “the best way to predict the future is in relation to domestic architecture, temples, churches, to invent it.”1 Invention requires hard work, sustained theaters, schools, and museums. We have not been inquiry, a grounded understanding of what came at this for very long, and the rapid pace of scientific before, and, perhaps, a bit of luck. We believe discovery and inquiry will continue to inform our architecture can proceed on a similar path to arrive research buildings of the future. In order to understand at successful and inventive solutions. The Lab 3 what the future may bring for science and research Timeline attempts to capture that spirit of invention buildings, it’s important to understand how we ended up and provide inspiration for research labs of the future. where we are today. There are two important reasons to examine the architectural evolution of the lab building. The first is that the basic goals and aspirations of the individuals and institutions of the past are often very similar to what they are today but exist under very different technological, institutional, societal, and political conditions. This is meaningful architecturally because we can generate new architectural concepts 1 Gregor Mendel’s Lab—a monastery garden, 1865 2 Rockefeller Institute Medical Research Labs, 1917 from historical examples and recondition them to the 3 Leicester University Engineering Labs, 1963 present. Marie Curie’s “shed lab” in Paris might have 4 4 Columbia University Neuroscience Labs, 2017 been less than ideal—but imagine it reinterpreted 6 7 2 Historical Introduction The Scientific Method and Early Labs 8 9 Aristotle Alchemy Experimentation Research 4th Century BCE Alchemist’s chamber, 400 AD–1300 AD Chemical Lab, circ. 1750 Michael Faraday’s lab, London, 1852 Long before labs existed, the scientific method had to Strongly influenced by Aristotle, alchemists resembled This continued into the 19th century, when European I implore you, take some interest in those sacred be contemplated. Aristotle—as depicted in Raphael’s scientists but were trying to alter the world rather than and American labs often depicted the lone researcher dwellings meaningly described as laboratories. Ask painting The School of Athens, at center in blue (next understand it. While they wanted to help people in need, working in less than optimal conditions—in attics, that they be multiplied and completed. They are to Plato)—was one of the first great philosophers they also had to earn a living by producing cheap dyes, basements, or sheds without much access to natural the temples of the future, of riches, and of comfort. to ask fundamental questions about nature and to imitation pearls, and metal alloys that looked like gold light or critical services like plumbing and ventilation. There humanity grows better, stronger; there she examine the world around him. He is the father of and silver.4 They are often depicted as solitary figures Emphasis shifted to experimental reproducibility and can learn to read the works of nature, works of modern science and the scientific method—the laboring alone over experiments, usually in the presence rationality. progress and universal harmony, while humanity’s process of observation, collection, classification, of a draught furnace and other paraphernalia that own works are too often those of barbarism, of This continued into the 19th century when labs in and discovery. In opposition to Plato, who believed added to their mystique. The environment was either fanaticism, and of destruction.7 Europe and America still often depicted the lone in mysticism and idealism, Aristotle was a realist and lofty, as the above image shows, or gloomy and isolated. researcher in his or her lab in less than optimal — Louis Pasteur, 1868 empiricist who sought to observe nature through the They incorporated mysticism, religion, astronomy, and conditions— in attics, basements, or sheds without sober eyes of science.2 He wrote treatises on biology, mathematics into work that was often based on the much access to natural light or critical services including the taxonomy of many living organisms, as Aristotelian theory of the four elements of matter: earth, like plumbing and ventilation. Scientists began to well as physics and astronomy. air, fire, and water. Typically working in secrecy, they demand better facilities. Louis Pasteur, one of the mixed the mystical with the empirical and technical.5 Aristotle set up a school in Athens to rival Plato’s great “microbe hunters”6 who brought the world some academy: The Lyceum. This was his answer to Plato’s As alchemy evolved, others turned to real of the first vaccinations, pasteurization, and (most Academy and its mirror image.3 It consisted of a experimentation to uncover the secrets of the natural important?) better wine, was eloquent on this matter garden, a temple to the nine muses, lecture rooms, world. The disciplines of chemistry began to emerge and implored politicians and universities for improved a library, and rooms with tables for collecting and and scientific laws were proposed and accepted to facilities. This helped to usher in the purpose-built dissecting biological specimens. explain natural phenomena. research lab that could accommodate groups of scientists. The late 19th century saw the lab become visible, recognized, and institutionalized. It is here that The Lab Timeline begins. 10 11 3 The Lab Timeline Purpose-Built Labs: Mid-19th Century to Present 12 13 The Cavendish Thomas Edison Marie Curie’s Schermerhorn Hall Rockefeller Institute The Einstein Tower Cold Spring Harbor Lab MIT RadLab Laboratory Laboratories “Shed Lab” (“fly lab”) Columbia Flexner Hall Potsdam, Germany (Jones Lab), Cold Spring (Building 20) Cambridge, England West Orange, NJ Paris, France University, New York, NY New York, NY Erich Mendelsohn, 1922 Harbor, NY; Sidney Watson Cambridge, MA James Clerk Maxwell, 1874 Henry Hudson Holly, 1888 no architect, 1897 McKim, Mead & White, 1898 Coolidge & Shattuck, 1917 (orig. 1895), 1930s McCreery & Theriault, 1943 Genes Reside on Chromosomes “Transforming Principle” Heredity and Genes (Gregor Mendel) - 1865 (T.H. Morgan “Fly Room” at Columbia)- 1910 Penicillin of Nucleic Acids (O. Avery) - 1944 Rous Sarcoma Virus X-Ray Crystallography (A. Fleming) - 1928 Microbes & Vaccination (Pasteur) - 1870’s (Peyton Rous) - 1909 (W.L. Bragg)- 1915 Dawn of Molecular Biology (Delbruck, Luria) - 1935 First Chemotherapeutics (Ehrlich) - 1878 Synthesis of Purine (Emil Fischer) - 1902 Bacteriophage (F. D’Herrelle) - 1921 Biology Neuron