Designing the Infrastructure Behind the Next Generation of Science
MacBick designs, builds, and activates laboratories prepared for AI, automation, robotics, and cloud-connected research.
More than a laboratory design firm
A laboratory is no longer a room with benches in it. It is a data environment, an automation platform, and a regulated physical space at once, and those three things have to be planned together or they never quite fit.
MacBick works across althree. We plan and design the facility, specify and connect the instruments that run in it, and stand the operation up so thatscience can begin on the day the doors open.
What gets skipped on paper gets paid for twice in concrete.
Intelligent laboratories, planned as such from the first drawing
AI readiness is an infrastructure decision, not a software purchase. Instrument
connectivity, data capture, network capacity, power and cooling headroom, and
floor area for automation cells are all settled while the building is still on paper.
Facilities that defer them pay for them again later as retrofit.
Connected instruments
Every instrument specified with its data path, protocol, and integration owner named before the equipment is planned in.
Data captured at source
A laboratory data strategy that makes results usable by models, not trapped in a local workstation.
Headroom for automation
Space, services, and clearances reserved for the robotics and automation cells that arrive in year three.
Four layers of infrastructure
Physical Infrastructure
The facility itself — planned, designed, and coordinated through construction.
- Laboratory Planning
- Laboratory Design
- Architectural Coordination
- Engineering Coordination
- Construction Administration
Digital Infrastructure
The data layer — connectivity, cloud, and AI readiness designed alongside the building.
- AI Readiness
- Laboratory Data Strategy
- Instrument Connectivity
- Digital Laboratory Planning
- Lab Cloud Integration
Operational Infrastructure
Everything between a finished shell and a laboratory running science.
- Equipment Planning & Coordination
- Laboratory Activation
- Commissioning
- Operational Readiness
Future Infrastructure
The capabilities a laboratory grows into: robotics, automation, autonomy.
- Robotics Integration
- Laboratory Automation
- Autonomous Laboratory Planning
- Digital Twins
- Predictive Laboratory Operations
A facility that keeps its options open
AI readiness is an infrastructure decision, not a software purchase. Instrument
connectivity, data capture, network capacity, power and cooling headroom, and
floor area for automation cells are all settled while the building is still on paper.
Facilities that defer them pay for them again later as retrofit.
A century in laboratories, pointed forward
Macalaster Bicknell has supplied and equipped scientific environments since 1920. That history is why the specification is right; the current work is about what a laboratory has to become next.
Healthcare and behavioral-health projects
continue to draw on our trauma-informed
design practice, now scoped as a healthcare
capability rather than a company-wide
position.
SELECTED WORK
A century of laboratories, built to work
A selection of MacBick laboratory projects — design, casework, and fit-out across clinical, research, pharmacy, and industrial facilities.
General Laboratory
Fume Hoods & Safety Equipment
General Laboratory
Fume Hoods & Safety Equipment
General Laboratory
Casework & Furniture Installation
General Laboratory
Casework & Furniture Installation
Lab Support / Office
Laboratory Design & Planning
Tell us what the science has to do. We’ll plan the facility around it.
Laboratory design, planning, activation, and AI-ready infrastructure for research organizations