Haleon - Innovation laboratory

The Future Health Lab is an innovation laboratory. A space for firing up the mind, forging the right connections, mastering effective processes, and anticipating the needs of the market. In many ways, it is a space of aspiration.

Located in a timber-framed building constructed on the parent site in 2020, the Future Health Lab is a Haleon-certified “start-hub”, part of the British consumer healthcare company. Within a relatively compact open-plan space, the primary aim is to create a dynamic, creative, and flexible environment. To achieve this, we opted for a bright and luminous interior, softening the presence of giant wall screens and the adjacent virtual reality rooms. The colour palette is gentle and inviting – oak defines key structural elements, while seating in fresh bud green and maize yellow introduces natural highlights, inserting subtle, “pointillist” touches of natural warmth into an environment otherwise dominated by digital surfaces.

These spaces are practical because they are often full of technology. Some are immersive rooms where, from floor to ceiling, it is possible to recreate the interior of a pharmacy in detail in order to determine how a new product will be positioned, which other items it will sit alongside, and to anticipate branding, packaging and communication strategies. Others are ideation rooms – spaces designed for creativity, innovation, and idea generation – whilst others are prototyping spaces equipped with plotters and 3D printers. Here, people think, test, experiment, sometimes fail, and then start again. Each space fosters understanding, immersion, imagination, and projection. This is a laboratory for predicting the future, yet at its core, it remains a place of human endeavour.

The spaces have been designed to encourage interaction, with a focus on sharing, creativity, and interactivity. The overarching aim is to create a welcoming, friendly environment that is, above all, efficient. The goal is to keep moving forward. Flexible desks foster spontaneous encounters and impromptu sessions; a TEDx-style micro-amphitheatre doubles as a break area; a long, modular desk allows for multiple configurations; while other workstations are arranged to promote movement — both physical and creative. Here, the flow of ideas is considered just as important as countering the sedentary nature of office life.