Kelly Smyth, AIA, associate director of lab planning at Genesis AEC
Kelly Smyth, AIA, is associate director of lab planning at Genesis AEC. Lab Design News spoke to Kelly about her approach to lab planning, engaging scientists in the design process, the impact of AI and automation on laboratory spaces, and her vision for making lab design more accessible to architects.
Q: If you weren't in this profession, what job would you like to have instead?
A: If I weren’t a lab designer, I would be a landscape designer. Outside of work, I garden for ecosystem health and biodiversity in my own yard. I am a huge fan of Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park movement to replace lawn with native plants. I would love to apply the same strategic planning and systems-oriented skillset I use on lab projects to help others design and install gardens that are both beautiful and functional, double as habitat, and contribute to the health of our natural world.
Q: What is your favorite building, lab-related or not?
A: My favorite building right now is the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, PA. It sits in Brandywine Valley, not far from my home and Genesis AEC’s headquarters in Blue Bell. Housed in a renovated 19th-century gristmill, the museum brings together art, architecture, and nature. Outside, the scenic river views and restored Eastern Deciduous Forest habitat create a beautiful aesthetic; inside, the living legacy of the Wyeth family’s artwork reflects the region’s heritage. I love it for its humble service to both the art and the landscape, and for an approach to adaptive reuse that honors the textures and features of the original structure. The result is so much more than the sum of its parts.
Q: How do you see AI and automation influencing lab design in the coming years?
A: AI’s influence on lab design is already underway on two fronts: how we design labs, and what we’re designing them to support.
On the design side, AI tools are improving quickly and becoming more readily integrated into workflows. Data-intensive tasks such as lab equipment management can now be automated readily, but the results need close quality control oversight, human review, and tailoring to each project’s requirements. Used well, these tools help teams iterate faster and anticipate infrastructure impacts at the front end, so we produce not just more design options quickly, but better-informed ones.
On the lab side, automation continues to reshape spaces for science. Labs that were once mostly wet lab space now mix in dry and computational space, dedicated robotics zones, and collaboration areas. Infrastructure demands increase, with greater electrical, cooling, backup power and data needs to support automation. Those systems need to be planned from day one, with flexible distribution and modular layouts that can adapt as platforms evolve.
As machines take on more repetitive work, a lab designer’s role is also to ensure the lab remains about people, and to keep reimagining spaces where scientists can focus on the problem definition, collaboration and discovery that only they can do.
Q: What is one important “soft skill” that all lab design experts should have?
A: There are many, but the one that underpins the others, for me, is relationship building. It draws on effective verbal and nonverbal communication, active listening, emotional intelligence, and empathy to appreciate each stakeholder’s point of view. In laboratory design, stakeholder groups are increasing in size and diversity, with AI and data specialists working alongside bench scientists. Understanding and aligning these different priorities is essential to successful design.
Every laboratory is a working system within a larger system, shaped by the societal service that lab provides. As we define requirements and make design decisions for lab spaces, keeping that bigger picture in mind guides how we approach project conversations and ensure that no single voice or idea dominates at the expense of the whole.
Q: What strategies do you use to engage scientists and researchers in the design process and gather meaningful input?
A: One important strategy is demystifying the design process. Floor plans, blocking diagrams, metrics-based planning, and construction documents are second nature to architects and planners, but often less familiar to scientists. By explaining these tools and ways of working, we invite scientists and researchers to become true participants in design.
The exchange goes both ways. A successful design depends on the design team understanding how research is performed, how equipment and workflows interact, and how the science program may evolve. When users understand which decisions are on the table, their input becomes more focused, timely, and valuable. The better the design team understands the workflows, equipment, and trajectory of the science program, the better the design. Building fluency in each other’s language enables sound decision-making, a smoother process and, ultimately, a better lab.
Q: What are you most looking forward to in this new role?
A: In my lab planning leadership role, I look forward to sharing knowledge and mentoring architects in effective programming and planning practices, as well as sound lab detail design. I also have been actively developing internal training program and building our resource library with guides, standards and references, that make lab planning approachable for designers across our firm.
This matters to me because there is a misconception within the architecture industry that “design” happens in museums, public spaces, or high-end residential work, and that labs are a separate world reserved for specialists. Laboratory projects benefit immensely from architects and design thinkers with diverse backgrounds, so the more I can share the skills and knowledge that give talented designers confidence on lab projects, the better. I hope to break down that perceived barrier and invite more architects and designers of all types into the laboratory environment.
