Beta decay studies with the total absorption technique B Rubio, W Gelletly, E Nácher et al.Towards detailed knowledge of atomic nuclei -the past, present and future of nuclear structure investigations at GSI J Gerl, M Grska and H J Wollersheim Beta decay studies with total absorption spectroscopy and the Lucrecia spectrometer at ISOLDE Here we present the experimental activities carried out at ISOLDE with the total absorption spectrometer Lucrecia, a large 4π scintillator detector designed to absorb a full gamma cascade following beta decay. This spectrometer is designed to measure β-feeding to excited states without the systematic error called Pandemonium. The set up allows the measurement of decays of very short half life. Experimental results from several campaigns, that focus on the determination of the shapes of β-decaying nuclei by measuring their β decay strength distributions as a function of excitation energy in the daughter nucleus, are presented.