As a building type, laboratories are a relatively rcent invention. Today's modern scientific society demands special equipment, space and accomodation for activities that have grown increasingly specialised and dangerous over the past decades. As diverse as science itself, the wide range of labs presented in this book address issues such as 'green' and sustainable labs, security and safety, the conversion of existing buildings into state-of-the-art scientific facilities, challenges relating to incorporating labs into existing university campuses, and ways of alleviating, through thoughtful design, the stresses associated with intensive research. An introduction by leading international laboratory designer , Payette Associates, analyses the many factors that make a successful building for science, and how these can be addresses by a collaboration between the building designers and laboratory specialists.