Though energy loads in labs are largely driven by requirements for ventilation, daylighting still is an important strategy. The less artificial lighting you use, the less power you will need for moving and chilling the air that was heated by the lighting.

At the beginning of every lab design effort, HOK’s team conducts visioning sessions in which the client’s researchers are quizzed about their goals for the project. “The two requests we always get, hands down, are for daylight and views to the exterior,” says HOK Sustainable Design Principal Bill Odell.

In the past, labs often were designed around the building’s mechanical system. The result was a building with many internal labs. That’s old-school thinking, says Odell, who doesn’t believe in planning around the pipes.

“We need to design the infrastructure for flexibility and efficiency, but there’s no reason you can’t do that while placing the needs of your people first. The cost of a lab might be $200-$300 a square foot. But your researchers will cost you $300-$600 per square foot over a year. And each succeeding year they will cost more because of raises. An organization’s value is in its people.”

Giving researchers the building’s best space, along the windows, encourages them to spending more time there, says Odell. “You create a pleasant, more productive workplace while you are cutting down the energy use. And you aren’t giving up anything in terms of flexibility if you gang the utilities at the entrances to each lab.”

At Sigma-Aldrich’s new 150,000-square-foot Life Sciences and High Technology Building in St. Louis, all the labs are on the perimeter of the building, where they are bathed in natural light. Daylight actually serves as the main light source, with task lighting at the desk level. Lab lights are frequently off for most of the day. Perimeter shades protect from glare and direct radiation while reflecting daylight deep into the building.

The Danforth Center combines extensive use of natural daylighting with use of high-performance, low-E glazing throughout. A brise soleil sunshade at the building’s south entry face has louvers sized to block sun during warm summer months and to reflect light back in to the building during the winter.

At Emory University’s 325,000-square-foot Whitehead Research Building in Atlanta, 90% of the building's lab spaces are on the edges, with windows to the outside. Lights running along the periphery are sensor-controlled instead of being tied into the general lighting system; they don't switch on until natural light levels go down.

The 40,000-square-foot Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise in St. Louis uses sunshades and light shelves on the building’s south face. Placing MEP zones at the corridor allowed the plenum to shrink and the ceiling to slope up at the windows. Designing circulation routes at the window wall and using fume hoods placed four feet inboard increased both the glazing capability and safety.