In the debut episode of Side Notes, a bite-sized version of Side of Design, host Matt Gerstner sits down with Nate Roisen, BWBR’s Science + Technology Practice Leader, to explore the evolving world of design and innovation in the market. In just under 15 minutes, they cover what excites Nate about the current landscape, the biggest challenges clients face, and what makes designing in this field so rewarding.
Bringing Innovation to Life
Nate opens the conversation with a look at the long-term nature of science and technology projects, emphasizing the satisfaction that comes from seeing work finally come to life after years of planning and design—one of those being the in-progress North Dakota State Lab.
“There’s design effort, there’s cost, there’s construction,” Nate says. “We have some great projects that are going to be occupied at the end of this year and that’s something that’s really exciting at this point.”
As Nate and the team watch designs come to life, valuable lessons learned come to fruition through conversations with clients and post-occupancy findings.
“Unlike some other professions, we have the privilege of actually having a physical thing in the world that is the sum of our work, and we rarely get the opportunity to sit back and appreciate that,” he says. “But this coming year is going for us to really celebrate some of those accomplishments over the last five years.”
Designing for People in Precision-Driven Places
The work of creating complex products, like computer chips and medical devices, requires highly skilled teams. Between workforce shortages and competition between companies to hire the best and brightest talent, designing environments where people want to work is critical.
Addressing the technical aspects is important—as Nate explains, meeting building codes, square footage needs, and equipment requirements are all crucial elements. “But does a person actually want to work in there, and is the room set up in such a way that when a person is spending eight or ten hours a day for years and years in that room, they’re giving their best all the time?” Nate asks.
From relaxing break rooms to access to daylight in office areas, and even high-quality HVAC systems that provide good airflow and comfortable temperatures, small upgrades can make a big difference in employee wellbeing.
“It’s easy to forget just how important that is when you’re not the one experiencing a room that might feel a little bit more like a cave,” he says. “It’s fun to be able to bring that elevated experience to different project types where the people might be used to working in something that’s a lot less human scale.”
Solving the Puzzle of Design
Despite disliking actual puzzles, Nate loves the “puzzle” of designing complex science and tech spaces. Requirements for workflows, building codes, regulators, and clients can feel like impossible pieces to fit in one space—yet Nate says, “it’s really fun to put them together.”
Close collaboration with client stakeholders and scientists who manufacture the products helps to untangle the pieces, creating the best possible result. “Our experience complements each other—they know computer chips, but we know buildings. When we work together, we can make a really great building for assembling computer chips,” says Nate.
The unique intricacy and ever-evolving nature of science and technology keeps the work exciting for Nate, project after project. “The puzzle of putting a building together and figuring out how it works on the site and how it functions with material and people moving through it in ways that make sense is a challenge that never gets old,” he says.
Beyond the Façade
Nate shares a story of seeing a project he worked on while with his dad—the backside of “a kind of nondescript building” as he describes it. “He looked at it and he went ‘oh’, and the thing that I could tell was going through his head was like was like how much money did this guy spend on architecture school?”
The story encapsulates exactly what Nate loves about these facilities. “They might have nondescript exterior sometimes, but you crack them open and there’s a lot going on in there that really creates an intellectual challenge,” he says. “When we can have our voice as part of the design, it’s just fun. It’s interesting if we can make it a little bit better.”
These buildings may not always catch the eye from the outside, but inside, world-changing work happens every day. And for designers like Nate and the BWBR team, the reward comes not just from solving technical challenges, but from knowing their work helps others do theirs even better.
