The open lab floor plan...

Our lab space is contained within a larger Lab that houses personnel and equipment which belong to a number of PIs. We just recently moved into this lab space, as the building was just recently built. Our old space was a small set of rooms in the basement of a building that used to be a gymnasium. And while it was small, it was secure (mostly). Key pads on the door, etc. So when we moved into bright shiny new lab, complete with windows (!), everything was wonderful. Except that said shiny new lab, being touted as an open space where cooperation and collaborations abound, is an open floor plan. Very open. Oh, Joe Schmoe off the street can't just walk in; there is a key card swipe at the door. But consider that 8-10 labs share essentially one large room, each lab with 4-5 people. That's 30-50 people that have access to everything from equipment to supplies to (gasp!) data. And while for the most part, people respect the property of others, there is no way to secure the space from those who don't have (or use!) that sense of respect. There's also the saftey issue of somewhat random people walking through the lab space at any given time.

And realistically, even though we've now inhabited this lab for almost six months, I know very few of the names of the students and fellow post-docs that populate the lab space in our "Lab." Maybe this is because we are from different departments and have had little forced interaction. Or because we're all anti-social scientists that barely lift our head from the bench when someone walks by (not likely, since with-in lab groups and even departments, we cackle and talk often).  So is this really promoting collaboration?

While I applaud the attempt at promoting collaboration, it strikes me as though the lab was truly not designed with necessarily the best, or safest, science in mind.  Aren't there other ways to promote collaboration?