ABOUT LAB DESIGN CONFERENCE
Where the laboratory design community comes together
For more than 25 years, the Lab Design Conference has brought together the people who plan, design, engineer, build, operate, manage, furnish/equip, and use the places where science happens.
Architects and engineers. Lab planners and construction professionals. Facility leaders and building owners. Scientists, researchers, and lab managers. Manufacturers and solution providers.
Different disciplines. Different perspectives. One shared challenge:
How do we create better environments for science?
The Lab Design Conference exists to bring those perspectives together.
More than 25 years of laboratory design
An established gathering place for the industry
Lab Design News was founded in 2000 to serve the community involved in the design, construction, and operation of laboratory facilities.
The Lab Design Conference grew from that same commitment to sharing knowledge across the laboratory design community and has become an annual gathering place for the professionals responsible for creating state-of-the-art laboratory environments.
In 2027, the conference will mark its 26th annual event.
Across those years, thousands of conversations, projects, ideas, and professional relationships have passed through the conference.
The laboratories have changed.
The challenges have evolved.
The community has grown.
But the reason for bringing everyone together remains just as relevant.
Why we exist
Laboratory design is a team sport
Laboratories are among the most complex environments we create.
They must support highly specialized science while balancing safety, infrastructure, engineering, technology, sustainability, flexibility, budgets, workflows, collaboration, and the needs of the people working inside them.
No single discipline has all the answers.
The Lab Design Conference exists to bring the people responsible for those different pieces of the puzzle into the same conversation.
It’s where design professionals can learn from end users. Where facility leaders can exchange ideas with engineers. Where project teams can share what happened after occupancy—not just what appeared in the plans.
Because better laboratories happen when we understand the project from more than one perspective.
One community. Many perspectives.
Connecting people across the laboratory lifecycle
The Lab Design Conference serves professionals involved at every stage of creating, supporting, and experiencing laboratory environments.
PLAN + DESIGN
Architects • Lab Planners • Interior Designers • Consultants
The people translating scientific and organizational needs into environments designed to support research, people, and performance.
ENGINEER + BUILD
Engineers • Construction Professionals • Project Managers • Specialty Consultants
The teams responsible for turning complex plans into safe, functional, high-performing laboratory environments.
OWN + OPERATE
Building Owners • Facility Leaders • Capital Planning Professionals • Operations Leaders
The people responsible for ensuring laboratory environments continue to perform long after construction is complete.
WORK + DISCOVER
Scientists • Researchers • Lab Managers • Technical Professionals
The people whose research, workflows, safety, collaboration, and everyday experience are directly affected by laboratory design.
SUPPORT + INNOVATE
Manufacturers • Equipment Providers • Solution Partners • Industry Experts
The organizations developing the products, technologies, systems, and services that make modern laboratory environments possible.
The diversity of this community is intentional. Lab Design News and the conference were built to serve the full ecosystem involved in the design, construction, operation, and use of laboratory facilities.
Design starts with the people who will use it
The end-user perspective belongs at the table
The people who work in laboratories every day experience design decisions long after a project team has moved on.
Scientists, researchers, lab managers, and other laboratory professionals understand how space affects workflows, collaboration, safety, productivity, flexibility, and their ability to do their work effectively.
Their perspective is essential.
The Lab Design Conference creates opportunities for laboratory end users to share what they need from their environments, what has worked, what hasn’t, and what project teams should consider when planning the laboratories of the future.
That philosophy is rooted in the broader Lab Design community, which has long served not only the building team but also laboratory owners, operators, high-level users, and managers.
When the people designing laboratories and the people using them learn from one another, everyone makes better decisions.
Evolving alongside the laboratories we create
The questions change. The need to learn from one another doesn’t.
Laboratory environments have changed dramatically over the conference’s history.
Scientific work has become increasingly collaborative and interdisciplinary. Technology continues to transform how laboratories operate. Sustainability has moved from an emerging consideration to a fundamental design challenge. Flexibility, resilience, safety, and the human experience have become increasingly important.
New construction continues, while renovations, retrofits, expansions, and adaptive reuse present their own complex challenges.
The Lab Design Conference has evolved alongside the profession, creating a place to examine the trends, technologies, projects, and practices affecting both new and refurbished laboratory facilities. These themes also reflect the year-round editorial focus of Lab Design News.
What hasn’t changed is the value of bringing the community together to share real projects, exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and learn from experience.
LEARNING FROM THE REAL WORLD
The story behind the finished space matters
A finished laboratory can show us what was built. The more valuable story is often how the team got there.
What problem were they trying to solve? What did scientists and end users actually need? What constraints shaped the design? Where did plans change? What worked better than expected—and what would the team do differently next time?
And what happened once people moved in and started using the space?
The Lab Design Conference creates a place to explore those questions through real projects and real experience.
Case studies put design and operational decisions into context. Lab tours take attendees inside laboratory environments. Industry experts bring new technologies, systems, and approaches into the conversation.
But some of the most valuable learning happens when those experiences are shared—when someone asks a question, challenges an assumption, offers a different approach, or explains what happened when an idea met reality.
By sharing not only successful outcomes, but also the challenges, trade-offs, unexpected results, and lessons learned along the way, one project’s experience can help inform the next.
That’s why the conference isn’t built around a single voice or perspective. The collective experience of the community is what makes it valuable.
Design Excellence Awards
Recognizing the work that moves the industry forward
Great projects give the entire community something to learn from.
The Design Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding laboratory environments and the collaborative teams whose vision, expertise, and execution bring them to life.
By recognizing excellence across laboratory design, the awards provide another way for the community to share ideas, recognize exceptional work, and inspire what comes next.
More than an annual event
Part of the Lab Design News community
The conversations shaping laboratory environments don’t begin when the conference opens—or end when everyone goes home.
Founded in 2000, Lab Design News provides year-round news, features, analysis, webinars, project coverage, and industry information for the professionals involved in designing, constructing, and operating laboratory facilities.
Its coverage spans laboratory planning and design, architecture, engineering, construction, operations, sustainability, renovations, technology, safety, materials, furnishings, and other issues affecting both new and refurbished facilities.
Together, Lab Design News, the Lab Design Conference, and the Design Excellence Awards create a connected platform for the laboratory design community to:
DISCOVER
Projects, trends + ideas
LEARN
From industry experience
CONNECT
Across discipline
RECOGNIZE
Exceptional work
MOVE FORWARD
With ideas that can inform the next project
What we believe
The principles that keep us moving forward
BETTER LABS START WITH BETTER CONVERSATIONS.
The strongest solutions emerge when people with different expertise are willing to share what they know—and listen to what others have learned.
END USERS BELONG IN THE CONVERSATION.
The people who work within laboratories every day bring essential insight into how design decisions affect research, safety, workflows, collaboration, and operations.
REAL EXPERIENCE IS WORTH SHARING.
Successes matter. So do challenges, compromises, unexpected outcomes, and lessons learned.
GREAT DESIGN IS COLLABORATIVE.
Successful laboratories are the result of architects, engineers, planners, builders, owners, operators, end users, and solution providers working together.
TODAY’S PROJECT SHOULD HELP INFORM TOMORROW’S.
Every laboratory gives the community another opportunity to learn, improve, and reconsider what’s possible.