Educational institutions, particularly universities, construct lab buildings with the dual purpose of facilitating teaching and research activities. These buildings typically accommodate both teaching labs, used for instructional purposes, and research labs, which support faculty-led research endeavors.

Teaching labs are generally designed to be flexible and versatile, serving multiple study groups without specific assignments. In contrast, research labs are typically assigned to specific research groups led by professors and may include support labs for specialized experiments or equipment. Additionally, shared core infrastructure or equipment labs, also known as platforms, may provide expensive equipment for shared use among researchers.

Both teaching and research labs often feature a cellular structure, consisting of repeating units of labs, support labs, and offices for researchers. This modular design allows for the formation of independent lab clusters tailored to the needs of specific research groups. Each lab module can be customized to an extent with specific air circulation, temperature, and humidity conditions to accommodate unique equipment and research processes.

University labs frequently embrace the "open lab" concept inspired by the R&D industry. This concept emphasizes easy adaptability and collaborative interaction by removing partition walls and incorporating flexible workbenches and overhead systems. The aim is to create an environment conducive to seamless collaboration and interdisciplinary research.

The HPL was built by ETH Zurich in 2005-2012 for Life Sciences and cross-disciplinary medical research on Campus Hönggerberg. The building has approximately 10'000m² of useable area for 400 lab- and non-lab workplaces. It comprises six lab floors above ground and three underground levels housing a vivarium, storage facilities, and technical floors.

The lab plan follows a cellular layout based on a 7.0m structural module. Vertical riser shafts are distributed throughout the building, with one shaft serving each lab module. Additionally, open collaboration spaces are integrated within the circulation areas, fostering interaction and interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers.

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The HCI was built in two phases in 2001 and 2004. Initially built for the Department of Chemistry, additional departments such as Materials and Biology later joined the user list. The construction budget, including lab fitouts, amounted to over 1 billion Swiss Francs, making HCI the single most expensive non-military building in Switzerland. The building boasts close to 150,000 square meters of total area, with 65,000 square meters of primary usable space.

The building's plan features five identical research lab and office wings connected by a central Spine, which houses circulation areas and teaching labs. Teaching labs, situated along the Spine and facing the courtyards, are complemented by seminar rooms attached to the cores. The Head of the building accommodates student restaurants on the Ground Floor, with auditoriums located above. Specialized research facilities, including a vivarium and technical rooms, are situated underground.

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Stanford constructed the Clark Center in 2003 to serve as the headquarters for Bio-X, a pioneering program aimed at enhancing the outcomes of scientific research by promoting interdisciplinary collaboration among scholars from the Schools of Medicine, Engineering, and Humanities & Sciences.

One notable feature of the Clark Center is its open-concept lab space, devoid of partitions. This design choice facilitates flexibility, allowing workstations to be easily arranged and rearranged as needed. The lab space is equipped with overhead services, ensuring convenient access to utilities from any location within the facility. This layout fosters a dynamic and collaborative environment conducive to groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

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