Designing the Undesigned: The Six A's and the Laboratory of the Future
2025 Lab Design Conference speaker—Kieron McGrath, associate director, PM Group
At the 2025 Lab Design Conference in Denver, attendees were challenged to think differently about what it truly means to design a “lab of the future.” In his presentation, How the 6 A’s Will Generate Current and Future Innovative Laboratories, Kieron McGrath, associate director of PM Group, urged design/build professionals and end users alike to move beyond traditional thinking and embrace a holistic, adaptable mindset that anticipates change.
“In a rapidly changing world, where science and technology accelerate year by year, the laboratories of today must be designed to accommodate the unforeseen demands of tomorrow,” McGrath said. His message centered on flexibility, integration, and foresight—key ingredients for creating laboratory environments that can evolve with the science they support.
The Six A’s: a framework for innovation
McGrath structured his talk around the Six A’s—a set of interconnected design principles that serve as a conversation builder with clients to prioritize their specific needs:
Adaptability: Making labs flexible to change in design and operation.
Adjacencies: Organizing flows, layouts, and connections inside and outside the buildings.
Assembly: Designing for modularity, off-site construction, and repeatable systems.
Automation: Integrating robotics, data, technology, and AI.
Aesthetics: The look, feel, and human-centric well-being of the laboratory.
Accountability: The responsibility to be a sustainable lab.
He also introduced a seventh A—Activity—which he described as “understanding how the lab operates.” This central element, McGrath noted, sits at the heart of the other six and “pulls everything together.”
Adaptability: the short answer to the future
McGrath identified adaptability as the most crucial quality for any modern laboratory. “The lab of the future is about adaptability,” he emphasized, reminding attendees that most facilities are designed for a 50-year lifespan. Planning beyond immediate needs requires more than incremental changes—it demands a rethinking of traditional assumptions.
He outlined several ways to future-proof laboratories through adaptable design strategies:
Lab module size and utilities: Traditional three-foot benches may no longer meet the needs of larger equipment or collaborative robotics. Deeper benches—six or seven feet—combined with movable utility distribution across aisles rather than along benches can enable flexible reconfiguration.
Increased floor-to-floor height: “A slightly higher floor-to-floor height is a small upfront investment for long-term operational flexibility and efficiency,” McGrath said, noting that taller spaces accommodate multi-level benching and simplify ductwork routes.
Demountable, movable, and reusable (DMR) construction: To minimize downtime and material waste, McGrath advocated for “partitions clickable into place and easily removed,” and suggested adopting a universal 12-foot design module to promote reuse and reduce embodied carbon.
Automation and activity: designing with data
McGrath explored how automation and activity intersect in the design process, particularly as personalized medicine, such as cell and gene therapy, increases the demand for testing throughput. Automation, he said, is not about replacing people—it’s about meeting “the additional demand that is coming.”
For end users, McGrath told the Lab Design Conference audience, data is the critical link. “If we want our labs to get to more and more automated operations, we have to have the data to tell that automated system how to operate,” McGrath explained. Collecting granular data on equipment use and workflow efficiency allows design teams to integrate automation intelligently rather than replicate inefficiencies at scale.
For design/build professionals, automation reshapes how they think about adjacencies and typologies. McGrath presented three evolving lab models:
The flexible lab: Human and cobot collaboration.
The automated lab: A “lights-out” environment, like a vertical warehouse.
The virtual lab: AI-driven drug discovery occurring in digital environments rather than physical spaces.
He suggested that these typologies need not share the same building or design criteria, and that adopting an “Amazon warehouse” mindset—stacking functions vertically—could reduce overall building footprint.
Aesthetics and accountability: beyond the façade
McGrath also made the case that aesthetics are not superficial, but integral to lab success. Thoughtful design fosters innovation and well-being by supporting communication, creativity, and comfort.
Design for people: Spaces should foster what McGrath called “chaotic collision”—those spontaneous interactions that spark new ideas.
Biophilic design and simplicity: Natural materials, daylight, and outdoor connections—such as roof gardens or overhanging balconies that double as solar shading—add “timeless” value while enhancing sustainability.
Science on view: Transparent lab environments make research visible, encouraging curiosity and engagement both inside and outside the facility.
When it comes to accountability, McGrath stressed to the Lab Design Conference audience that the push for net-zero operations must extend beyond energy use. “The more we reduce our operational carbon, the more of an impact the embodied carbon has on our difficulty to get to a net carbon zero,” he said.
He encouraged teams to challenge long-held assumptions, including the idea that concrete and steel are the default structural materials. “Timber frame should be our first priority to use for building structure, and then only going away from that when we find a solution that has to,” he advised.
Other sustainability-focused design strategies included decentralizing plant rooms—placing HVAC systems on each floor to shorten ductwork and reduce energy use—and applying the Six A’s to adaptive reuse projects, integrating automated functions into existing buildings rather than demolishing and rebuilding.
McGrath reflected on the mindset shift required to truly innovate in laboratory design. “The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones,” he said.
More forward-looking discussions like this one will continue at the 25th annual Lab Design Conference, taking place May 11–14, 2026, in Orlando, FL. Join your peers for a full program of educational sessions and networking opportunities designed to advance the future of laboratory design. For agenda details, lab tours/workshop tickets, and general conference registration, visit www.labdesignconference.com.
