Your laboratory is often the heart of an organization. It is a place where methodologies are proven, quality is assured, and research and innovations take place. If you are delivering innovative solutions to keep abreast of the market, your laboratory will most likely be a dynamic place.
Having a laboratory that exudes quality and professionalism is important to most organizations. It tells clients that you are to be trusted, that you deliver professional and top-quality products and services and your business can get the job done. This, in turn, can convince more prospects to become your clients.
Questions you can ask yourself are: What are your customers’ first impression when learning or visiting your facility? How tidy and organized is your worksite? How does this reflect on you as a manager in the eyes of a customer
Function before form
Building or refurbishing a functional laboratory space that is value and purpose aligned would be your priority ensuring that you can perform roles within the space quickly and accurately. Understanding laboratory purposes, external workflows and internal workflows are important to building a productive space that is fit-for-purpose.
On the “flip-coin”, understanding customer requirements and what gives them confidence and trust, will assist you with the level of “first impression” you may consider.
Building for an impact
Building your laboratory for maximum impact is a challenging task as you want to make sure you meet or exceed market requirements. Without looking back too much, it is a good idea to have a look at the level of professionalism of your competitors. How does their facilities represent their businesses and how do you compare to these?
Consider looking at impressive laboratories in your market online and offline for inspiration. Look at how you could implement features of design traits that stand out to you as impressive and impactful. Gathering a portfolio of inspirations will assist you with a high-level design brief for your architect or designer.
Use a laboratory specialist over a general architect or designer.
A laboratory specialist will assist you with material suitability and productivity of space and will most likely have experience in aligning your laboratory space with your impact brief. General joinery specified by general architects and designers can not only appear average but also fail the test of time, especially in a highly corrosive or harsh environments.
