BOOK:LAB Building a Home for Scientists,Lars Müller Publishers
In “LAB – Building a Home for Scientists” Mark C. Fishman describes how to build labs as homes for scientists, to accommodate not just their fancy tools and instruments, but also their personalities. Laboratories are both monasteries and space stations, redolent of the great ideas of generations past and of technologies to propel the future. Yet standard lab design has changed only little over recent years. The book is encouraging and instructive tool for scientists, planners and architects in their reflections on how to shape a working environment that is conducive to individual wellbeing and professional interaction. The advantages of new lab technologies and discovery tools allow open spaces and fluid pathways to enhance the culture of science. The author describes the evolution of the scientific laboratory and observes the sociology of buildings, proposing spatial generosity to accommodate individual instincts, ambitions and drives along with teamwork.-Efi Michalarou