Laboratories, educational space requirements

In an educational laboratory, fume hood space requirements are substantial, since so many students need a hood at the same time. Many operations that used to be performed on the bench must now be done in a hood for safety reasons. Inadequate hood space has caused many problems even in fairly modem university chemistry buildings. 

Figuring space for educational laboratories requires some dif-...

In an educational laboratory such overhead mounting must be planned with care. The typical work benches here are either peninsulas or islands where the utility box would go down the center with a shelf on top. The total height must be such that the instructor is able to look over the shelf in order to supervise a class. To complicate matters, there may be a waste water trough along the center of the bench which requires some free space above it. These multiple requirements present a challenge to the designer. 

As Winter notes, In the later phase oF mesmerism s Victorian history, important changes took place in the authoritative status of the sciences and medicine. By 1870 new disciplinary divisions in science and medicine, brought on by reforms in university education and the new laboratories, left less space for the lines of inquiry that mesmerism required (Winter 6). 

There has recently been considerable debate within the science and engineering communities about the effectiveness of laboratory instruction (Reid and Shah 2007, Adams 2009, Feisel and Rosa 2005). There is a general consensus that hands-on laboratory work is an essential component of undergraduate education in the sciences and engineering (Magin and Kanapathipillai 2000, Bhathal 2011) but more needs to be done to make laboratories more effective and better value for the costly equipment, dedicated technical staff, space and faculty time they require. 

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