A successful laboratory design project involves more than delivering a functional space. It requires a series of decisions about research needs, workflow, building systems, sustainability, and the people who will use the facility. The Design Excellence Awards recognize projects that bring these considerations together through thoughtful planning, innovative solutions, and outstanding design.
Now in its eighth year, the competition is open to eligible laboratory projects completed and occupied between January 1, 2025, and January 1, 2027, that have not previously been submitted. Architects, engineers, lab planners, facility owners, researchers, and other project partners can use the awards to share their work and the approaches that made it successful.
The deadline to enter the 2027 Design Excellence Awards is December 4, 2026. Winners will receive editorial coverage in Lab Design News and recognition at the 2027 Lab Design Conference, taking place May 10-13 in Dallas, TX. Category winners will also receive a plaque, while honorable mention winners will receive a certificate.
A compelling submission does more than document the finished facility. It helps judges understand the project's goals, the challenges the team faced, the reasoning behind key decisions, and the results those decisions delivered. These strategies can help your team prepare an entry that communicates the full value of its work.
1. Establish the project's purpose and context
Give judges a clear understanding of what the project set out to accomplish before describing its design features. Was the facility built to support new research capabilities, accommodate specialized equipment, improve existing workflows, consolidate departments, or replace aging infrastructure?
Explain the circumstances that shaped the project, including its intended users, research objectives, budget, schedule, site conditions, and any significant constraints. If the project involved a renovation or expansion, describe the limitations of the existing space and how the team addressed them.
This background gives judges a framework for evaluating the design. A solution that might seem straightforward in isolation can become much more impressive when its technical, operational, or spatial challenges are understood.
2. Explain how the design serves its users
Laboratories must support both scientific objectives and the people carrying out the work. Use your entry to show how the design responds to the needs of researchers, technicians, facility personnel, and other occupants.
Consider including examples of how end users participated in planning, reviewed layouts, identified workflow requirements, or helped resolve competing priorities. Explain how those conversations influenced decisions about equipment placement, adjacencies, circulation, shared resources, support areas, and flexibility.
If available, include post-occupancy feedback or other evidence that the finished environment meets its intended goals. Demonstrating the connection between user needs and design decisions helps show that the project is not simply attractive or technically sophisticated, but effective in practice.
3. Match the submission to the award category
The 2027 Design Excellence Awards offer four categories: Whole Building/Holistic Design, Sustainable Design, Interior Design, and Small Projects (under $20 million USD). Projects may be submitted in one category or additional categories when their achievements align with the relevant criteria.
Before preparing your entry, identify the aspects of the project that best demonstrate excellence in the category you select. Avoid relying on a general project description to make the case. Instead, explain why the design deserves recognition for its specific achievements.
Whole Building/Holistic Design
Show how the building's major components work together to support research, operational needs, and long-term performance. Address the relationship between laboratory and support spaces, building systems, circulation, flexibility, and architectural design. Explain how the facility's overall planning contributes to its intended purpose.
Sustainable Design
Describe the strategies used to reduce environmental impact and improve resource efficiency. Relevant examples may include energy and water conservation, HVAC optimization, material selection, waste reduction, or other measures that support sustainability. Explain how these strategies were incorporated into the project and, where possible, provide performance data demonstrating their effectiveness.
Interior Design
Focus on how interior planning, finishes, furnishings, lighting, ergonomics, and shared spaces contribute to the occupants' experience. Highlight design choices that improve comfort, usability, collaboration, or the relationship between laboratory and non-laboratory areas.
Small Projects (under $20 million USD)
Demonstrate how the team made the most of a limited budget, footprint, or project scope. Explain the priorities that guided spending and space allocation, along with any creative solutions that delivered meaningful improvements without unnecessary complexity. Context is particularly important when a relatively modest project achieves significant results.
For complete category descriptions and submission requirements, consult the Design Excellence Awards website.
4. Illustrate the design with purposeful visuals
Images should help judges understand the project, not simply decorate the submission. Select photographs, floor plans, diagrams, renderings, and other materials that demonstrate the design's most important features and explain how the space functions.
A photograph may communicate the atmosphere of a research environment, while a floor plan can clarify circulation, adjacencies, and space planning. Before-and-after images can be particularly helpful for renovations, and diagrams can illustrate complex systems or specialized workflows.
Choose visuals that reinforce the claims made in the written entry. Provide clear captions that explain what each image shows, include appropriate photographer credits and a release form, and ensure that plans and diagrams are legible. A well-selected image with a specific purpose can communicate more than several similar photographs.
5. Describe the challenges and how the team resolved them
Every laboratory project involves decisions shaped by competing demands. Perhaps the team needed to accommodate oversized equipment, work within an existing building, maintain research activities during construction, coordinate multiple disciplines, or balance ambitious performance goals against budget constraints.
Explain the challenge, the options considered, and the reasoning behind the solution. Include relevant examples of collaboration among architects, engineers, contractors, facility teams, researchers, and other project partners.
It is also worth discussing lessons learned, unexpected obstacles, and compromises that ultimately strengthened the project. Judges should be able to see not only what the team delivered, but also the thought and problem-solving required to get there.
6. Support your claims with measurable results
Specific evidence gives judges a clearer picture of what the project achieved. Whenever possible, pair descriptions of design features with data showing their impact.
Depending on the project's goals, useful evidence might include:
Environmental performance: Energy consumption, water use, waste reduction, emissions, or other sustainability measures, ideally compared with a baseline or relevant benchmark.
Space and workflow: Changes in usable space, improved adjacencies, reduced travel between work areas, more efficient equipment layouts, or better use of shared facilities.
User experience: Post-occupancy survey results, feedback from laboratory personnel, improved accessibility, or documented changes to collaboration and daily work.
Research capabilities: New types of research supported, specialized equipment accommodated, expanded capacity, or improved readiness for future needs.
Project delivery: Solutions that addressed schedule, budget, phasing, or construction constraints while maintaining essential performance requirements.
Not every project will have long-term performance data available, particularly if the facility has only recently opened. In those cases, explain the intended outcomes and provide the evidence that is available. Distinguish measured results from projected benefits, and give enough context for judges to understand what the numbers mean.
7. Make the submission easy to evaluate
A strong entry guides judges through the project logically, with each section contributing to a clear argument for recognition. Organize the material around the competition requirements, use direct language, and avoid repeating the same achievements in multiple sections without adding new information.
Define technical terms when needed, explain the significance of specialized features, and provide context for figures or comparisons. Rather than describing a feature as innovative, explain what makes it different and which problem it solves.
Before submitting, review the entry from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with the project. Can they understand its purpose, the major design decisions, the team's contributions, and the resulting benefits without needing additional explanations? If important details are buried in captions, implied rather than stated, or missing altogether, revise the submission to make the case more clearly.
8. Give judges a reason to remember the project
The most memorable entries connect individual design decisions to a larger achievement. Identify the project's defining contribution, whether that is an inventive response to a difficult constraint, a new approach to laboratory planning, an integrated sustainability strategy, or an environment that better supports the people conducting research.
A distinctive feature is most persuasive when its significance is clear. Explain why it matters, how the team brought it to life, and what other laboratory design professionals might learn from the experience.
The awards are an opportunity not only to celebrate a successful project, but also to share ideas that can inform future research environments. Give judges a clear understanding of what makes your project distinctive and why its lessons are worth sharing.
Submit your project for the 2027 Design Excellence Awards
Entries must be submitted by December 4, 2026, and projects must have been completed and occupied between January 1, 2025, and January 1, 2027. Previously submitted projects are not eligible.
Entry fees are listed on the Design Excellence Awards website.
Winning projects will receive editorial coverage through Lab Design News and recognition at the 2027 Lab Design Conference, scheduled for May 10-13 in Dallas, TX. Plaques and certificates will be awarded to honorees.
Review the eligibility requirements, explore the categories, and start your submission on the official Design Excellence Awards website. All submissions are due no later than December 4, 2026.
