It’s a niche specialization within architecture, and while I enjoy it it’s not quite as cool as it sounds. Labs tend to be designed to a common template around the standard lab bench depth (30") and accepted safe aisle width between 66" and 72". Most of the fun is in equipment planning, and that’s only exciting for a certain sort of Excel jockey 😅

Lab planning is a small enough niche that you really only find us in firms with a national or international reach, and so I’m more often working on projects several states away from me than anything in my own backyard. Travel varies, but other than initial meetings it tends to be hands-off job, so much so that I’m actually a 100% remote worker apart from when I’m on-site for a project kickoff or a site survey.

As for unusual or surprising parts of the job, I have really enjoyed working with some of the PI’s I’ve fitted labs out for. The best has to be a chemist operating a biofuels testing lab, who regaled us with tales of all the times he’d blown up some glassware or singed off his eyebrows in the lab! I was a bit worried for his safety practices, though…