Designing for Humans: Experience in Innovation and Lab Real Estate (and why this conversation matters)
I never thought my scientific life would come to play a role in my real estate life - and yet, here we are.
Before I was a real estate business strategist, I was a research scientist. Yes, the full cliché - lab coat, pipettes, endless experiments, and the constant low-grade panic that something was probably contaminating my samples.
Let me be brutally honest: I hated it. I did it for ten years because life is complicated, people make trade-offs, and sometimes you stay in a field long after the joy has evaporated. I eventually got the PhD, but a decade later I still get that recurring nightmare where I’m in the lab at 2am, running an experiment that refuses to work, wondering why I chose this life.
A photo of my actual fume hood, circa 2011 - points to anyone who can spot the funny message from a colleague at the top.
And a photo of my bench, on the rare day it was actually tidy. Oh, the memories.
What sticks with me most isn’t just the science; it’s the buildings we were expected to work in. Over the course of ten years, I worked in so many different types of labs:
Academic labs in universities and industrial labs in both small biotechs and big pharmaceutical companies
Labs across geographies - in the USA, in Europe, and if my high school counts, in Zimbabwe
Shiny new labs with views of the Swiss Alps, large windows and bright natural light flowing into the research space, and with easy access to a balcony a few steps from my desk
Decrepit, soul-destroying labs from the 1970s with flickering fluorescent lights and zero windows. Rooms where you genuinely couldn’t tell if it was day, night, or the end of time itself.
Here’s the myth that needs to die:
“Scientists will put up with anything because they’re just lucky to have lab access.”
Nonsense.
Scientists, founders, engineers, researchers - they are humans, and they collaborate a lot. Humans need sunlight, comfort, air, places to think, places to collaborate, places to breathe.
And with the explosion of lab and innovation space being delivered in the UK? People have options now.
Developers are discovering, sometimes painfully, that building generic boxes doesn’t cut it. If you build it badly, they simply won’t come. Or they’ll come reluctantly, complain constantly, and leave the moment something better shows up.
Real estate teams need to get sharp about what customers actually want from innovation and lab environments.
Not what they think scientists should accept. What real people, doing real R&D, commercialisation, and deep thinking, actually need to do their best work.
Which is why I’m genuinely excited about this upcoming Experience Makers lunch on 5 February.
This is an invitation-only event for senior leaders across real estate, innovation, and the built environment.
Our guest speaker is Victoria Collett , Development Director at Thomas White Oxford. Victoria has over 20-years’ experience creating great places in the UK and UAE. She is currently leading implementation of the Oxford North masterplan for Thomas White Oxford, the development company of the landowner, St John’s College, Oxford.
Oxford North is a global innovation district comprising one million square feet of labs and workspaces, 480 new homes and a mixed-use masterplanned environment designed to foster innovation and facilitate the next century of discovery.
Victoria is currently at the sharp end of translating big innovation ambitions into real, functioning environments for real people. That perspective - grounded, experienced, and deeply practical - is exactly what this sector needs more of. Because if we want better science, better innovation, and better places, we need to start by designing for humans.
If you’re a senior leader who owns, develops of operates real estate for innovation and science, and this resonates, do reach out, we would love to meet you.
About Experience Makers
Experience Makers is the UK's leading network for customer experience professionals in real estate - sharing best practice, building community, and driving change.
We bring together CX professionals from across asset classes - offices, retail, industrial, residential, mixed-use and more.
About RealService
We’re redefining customer experience, stakeholder engagement & destination activation in the built environment. At RealService , we help ambitious real estate businesses put customer experience at the centre of their strategy - so you can increase customer retention, lease faster, activate places with confidence, and elevate performance across your portfolio. Our survey insights, benchmarks, training, and expertise give you the tools and know-how to understand what your customers truly value and to deliver experiences that set your assets apart.
For more insights like this, follow me Chenai Gondo, PhD
