One activity that many academic people have had to do in the past decade is to cram new instrumentation into apparently already packed spaces. My background is rich in just such work. In the figure below I show my original plan of how an apparently full stockroom could be rearranged to accomodate a new higher field NMR instrument. My plan, and others accompanying it, was used by other staff in the department and in the college as the basis for remodelling.
To make the above happen, the stockroom assistant's office had to be remodelled. This is where much space had been wasted. By knocking out a wall to a portion of the stockroom that held mostly old equipment, shelving or carts could be installed along the length of the room. Thus, all of the glassware that previously had been idly stacked in the stockroom could be transferred there, opening up enough room for the NMR.
Another project that is in the hands of funding administrators
and architects at this time is a layout for an instrumental analysis lab
that has a small model shop and space for a large instrument inside it.
At the same time, there are projection facilities, mobile work areas that
support small group interactions, and closets in the surrounding hallways
that hold instrument and project carts. Many of these concepts have been
tested past the proof of concept stage, and are combined here in a large
room that will serve two groups of four students or 16 individual students
at one time. The plan that went to the architects is shown below.
