Professional Profile: Hadiza Djibring
Hadiza Djibring, lab planner with HDR in New York
Hadiza Djibring is a lab planner with HDR in New York. Lab Design News spoke to Hadiza about the latest trends in design-build, her favorite piece of architecture, and helpful advice for new lab planners.
Q: What sparked your interest in designing labs? Was there a defining moment that led you to this career?
A: My interest in lab design and planning initially began with an interest in sustainability—wanting to design more than just a building with a carbon footprint; to give back to society with invaluable, meaningful infrastructure.
In school, I competed in a US Department of Energy challenge to design and build a zero-energy home powered entirely by solar panels. The month-long exhibition for that design brought me to southern California, where I later accepted a role at a firm to do equipment planning for a hospital renovation in San Diego after graduating.
Those experiences showed me how design can be lifesaving, and the careful coordination made sense to me. Checking pieces of equipment, relating it to the emergency room, ensuring the architecture fits the instrument, and communicating with the physician assistant (PA) and the equipment consultant in the hospital. I realized how architecture aligned with patient care in an impactful way, and that was exciting to me.
Further reading: Materials Science Labs: Meeting Diverse Demands for Innovation, Precision, and Flexibility, by Hadiza Djibring
I was hired by another firm to be a junior lab planner, and from there, I was drawn to more deeply understand larger, interconnected systems—how equipment planning relates to facilities planning and campus planning that supports research, education and discovery. I recognized laboratories as essential infrastructure, as vital to society as schools and hospitals. For me, lab planning became a niche, fascinating career path and way to combine my passions for sustainability, innovation and giving back.
Q: If you weren’t in this profession, what job would you like to have instead?
A: I actually found another passion through laboratory planning, which is material sciences and engineering. It’s fascinating how scientists use different pieces of equipment to mix samples and stabilize samples to be able to know how electricity affects it, how light affects it, how much information can be stored in tiny little molecules and to discover many parts of the world that we don't know about yet.
The fact that quantum computing has become such a big deal in our world these days, and with AI and automation in laboratory equipment, it just makes sense to research it more. Scientific discoveries expand smaller worlds in ways that impact our bigger world. I would love to study material sciences formally to deepen my understanding and enrich how I design labs that truly support discovery. For now, I think of a future career as a materials scientist as a retirement dream … spending my time experimenting, mixing things in beakers, looking at the stars, and exploring the unknown.
Q: What is your favorite building, lab-related or not?
A: The Nagakin Capsule Tower in Japan. I first studied it in school and even built a small model of it for class. I was fascinated by its bold attempt at modular design and minimalist living, with tiny capsules meant to be replaced every 25 years. Though it was demolished in 2022, it remains an iconic example of architectural experimentation. Now parts of it are on display at MoMA in New York City, and I plan to visit at least twice before the exhibition closes.
Q: What trends are you seeing in lab design that you think will shape the future of the industry?
A: One of the biggest trends in lab design is that spaces are becoming more user-focused, adaptable, and resilient to change. Scientists don't always research the same way; processes might be similar, but they evolve when new discoveries are made. For example, if it becomes known that putting an instrument or sensitive equipment under a diffuser can disrupt images, samples or results due to airflow, then that knowledge influences how laboratory spaces are designed.
Creating zones that can be reconfigured as research changes, and distinguishing zones for various office and research functions that happen inside of a laboratory space help with futureproofing and durability. Labs must remain resilient through disruptions like epidemics or hurricanes, and flexible enough to accommodate new uses efficiently and cost-effectively over time. Adaptability, resiliency, flexibility, and durability are lab design trends shaping the future of the industry.
Q: For someone entering this career field, what advice would you give them?
A: I feel like I've been entering this career field for 10 years now, and I would say that patience and mentorship are the focus of my best advice. Patience is necessary for entering this career field because you don’t become a lab planner the day you decide you want to be a lab planner. Being a lab planner means you need a lot of precedence from working on previous projects and that you fundamentally understand how a laboratory space works.
Developing niche design expertise can take years and be someone’s entire career—whether the lab space is for physical sciences, life sciences, computer labs, data centers, biomedical or clinical. That’s why repetition and great mentorship are so important. I’ve been lucky enough to work with lab planners with 25+ years of experience who are willing to teach because all I want to do is learn.
Be patient. It takes years of experience and repetition to build confidence as a lab planner. Just as important, seek out strong mentors. Lab planning is collaborative, and the guidance you get from experienced colleagues will shape your growth far more than any single project.
