Bringing Science To Life

Where

Shropshire • Oxfordshire • Greater Manchester

Client

Life Sciences Company

Project Team

Michael Laird Architects

Corporate

The Challenge

As a life sciences organisation driven by a strong mission and set of values, the client recognised that their workplaces – predominantly laboratory-led, with offices, meeting rooms and breakout areas – should do more than function well. The gap wasn’t in strategy or intent, but in experience. The spaces weren’t yet clearly expressing who the organisation is or what it stands for.

The first project was in Oxford, where we were asked to explore how the brand could be expressed through the physical environment, in a way that felt appropriate within a scientific setting. What started as a single project grew into an ongoing collaboration, extending over several years and multiple sites.

Across each location, the focus remained the same: there was no consistent experience at key moments of arrival, movement and interaction, with little to connect one workplace to the next.

The challenge was to maintain consistency over time – evolving workplaces one by one, while ensuring each environment felt relevant to its specific scientific work, yet unmistakably part of the same organisation.

Our Approach

Each workplace was approached as a fresh opportunity to interpret the science taking place within it.

We paid close attention to the nature of the work, the tools used, the processes followed and the culture that surrounds them – allowing each environment to develop its own character while still belonging to a wider, recognisable whole.

Processes such as chromatography, data visualisation and molecular analysis informed the brand experience within each space. Iconography, patterns, lighting rhythms and material choices take cues from how scientific information is generated and read.

In several locations, decommissioned or adapted laboratory equipment was transformed into large-scale wall installations – turning tools of investigation into expressive, site-specific moments that encourage curiosity and discussion.

The result is an experience that feels unmistakably scientific without feeling clinical. Precise yet expressive. Intellectually engaging, but human at its core. Many of the most rewarding details are subtle, revealing themselves over time to those who work within the spaces every day.

Measurable Impact

Over time, this work has shaped how the organisation is experienced – by visitors encountering the science for the first time, and by teams working within it every day. The impact is felt through credibility, relevance and consistency, carried across each site without repetition or standardisation.

Immediate credibility

From the moment of arrival, the workplaces signal confidence and precision. For visitors, the experience establishes scientific capability and intent; for those who work there, the same cues unfold more gradually, building belonging through a shared sense of purpose, reinforced day to day.

Relevance through specificity

Each site reflects the particular scientific work taking place within it. Equipment-led artworks, spatial cues and tailored narratives create environments that feel meaningful to the teams who use them, building pride, ownership and connection to the work.

Consistency over time

Delivered over several years and locations, each workplace responded directly to the science taking place within it, rather than conforming to a fixed template. Together, the environments form a recognisable whole - different by design, yet connected through a shared sense of identity and continuity over time.

“Thanks for all the work you have put into the design, collaboration, manufacture, and installation of the branding at the new building. The graphics, which touch the majority of the building, have really made the space come alive and complement the interior design. The result is stunning, and a lot of the wow factor as you look around comes from your designs. Thank you!”
LIFE SCIENCES COMPANY