No exception for a lab? Our network engineering team has a lab (it’s an office) where they keep a bunch hardware and this and that. It’s pretty much one persons office.
Yes, that’s a very good idea. Tell your manager you’ll need a lab(even if just an empty space) for you to continue working if hot desking is introduced.
Might be just my anecdotal data, but a lot of these things come down to does your manager have a way to present whatever you're asking as a decent expense to his superiors. And not so much wanting to make your (work) life worse.
