As laboratory requirements become more complex, Deerns integrates safety, flexibility and high-performance building services from the earliest project stages.
Laboratories are among the most demanding environments to design well. They must support science, protect users, comply with strict regulations and remain functional as research methods, teams and technologies evolve.
In Life Sciences, clients face higher costs, grid congestion and rising energy prices, while also responding to more stringent and evolving sustainability and regulatory requirements. In this context, laboratory design is no longer just about fitting equipment into rooms. It has become a strategic exercise in future readiness.
At Deerns, laboratory design starts by understanding both current performance needs and future change. That means focusing not just on components, but on how layout, workflows and technical systems work together over time to optimise workflow and shorten production times .This matters in practice: if flexibility is not built in early, later changes can be costly, disruptive and, in active labs, may even require temporary shutdowns
" Deerns’ conceptual approach rests on two connected pillars: regulation and flexibility.
Regulation and flexibility as design foundations
Regulations are not treated as a late-stage compliance check, but as a foundation for the design concept itself. Working environment requirements, safety rules and sustainability regulations all influence how a laboratory should be planned from the outset.
At the same time, flexibility is essential. Departments shift, research priorities change and spaces are often reallocated between different users over a building’s lifespan.
Rather than designing for one immediate configuration, Deerns works from generic to specific. The aim is to create a repeatable base structure that can then be refined to suit each client and project.
This approach gives clients 4 key advantages:
- establishes a safe and compliant baseline early
- creates layouts that can absorb future changes
- reduces the need for costly redesign later
- protects long term operational value
From generic structure to project-specific design
A future ready laboratory needs the right utilities in the right sequence, with enough embedded logic in the base structure to support both present and future uses. This is where Deerns’ design method adds value. By working with a 3D library of generic laboratory components, Deerns can establish the underlying structure quickly and objectively before moving into project-specific refinement.
5 important value-adds:
- generic components allow options to be tested quickly and clearly
- design can move into tender without locking in one product route too early
- clients gain a more flexible procurement process
- faster sign-off and better alignment between design decisions and user expectations
- Deerns is independent and not tied to any one laboratory furniture supplier
" The result of project-specific design is a laboratory concept that is clearer, more adaptable and better aligned with long term value.
The link between lab layout and MEP design
One of the defining characteristics of laboratory projects is the tight relationship between layout and building services. In many building types, technical systems can be coordinated around the architecture.
" In laboratories, layout and building services are inseparable from the start.
A fume hood, for example, is not only a layout item. It has direct implications for air demand, ventilation capacity and the wider MEP concept. Many ordinary laboratory functions consume air or rely on tightly controlled environmental conditions because of safety and operational requirements.
Deerns’ ability to bring laboratory consultants, MEP consultants and engineering specialists together under one roof gives clients a more coherent process. Instead of treating layout and services as parallel tracks, they can be developed as one integrated design response.
In practice, integrated lab and MEP thinking helps clients address 4 essential questions:
- how safety requirements influence layout decisions
- how future changes can be accommodated without major disruption
- how ventilation demand impacts the spatial concept
- how air-consuming lab equipment and specialist equipment affect utilities
Designing for automation without excluding manual work
Laboratory environments are also being reshaped by automation. In diagnostics and other high throughput settings, tasks once handled by staff are increasingly carried out by robotic systems. Yet automation does not remove the need for manual laboratory work. Many environments still require preparation, intervention and specialist handling. The challenge is therefore not to design for one or the other, but to create laboratories that can support both.
For Deerns, early engagement is essential. It ensures that the right information is collected at the right time. Not every decision has the same urgency. Furniture finishes can wait until later phases, but information about ventilation requirements, vibration criteria and other specialist performance demands must be known early if the design is to develop efficiently.
Case study: Matrix Innovation – integrated lab thinking
The Matrix Innovation Center in Amsterdam illustrates the type of integrated thinking that laboratory projects increasingly require. The project combines laboratory planning, building services and future focused engineering within a wider vision for scientific development and collaboration.
Here’s where we design resilient research environments
Laboratory design is becoming more demanding, but also more strategic. Clients need environments that are safe, compliant, energy conscious and adaptable enough to absorb future changes in research, users and technology.
Deerns responds with a structured multidisciplinary approach that connects laboratory layout, MEP expertise, end-user engagement and phased decision making from the earliest stages. In Life Sciences, that is what turns a laboratory from a fitted space into a future ready environment that can continue to perform long after day one.
