Enhancing Research Outcomes Through Sustainable and Innovative Lab Design

2025 Lab Design Conference speaker—Andrew Schunke, principal, Architectus

Laboratory design today demands a balance between high-performance functionality, environmental stewardship, and human-centered experience—a challenge that continues to evolve as institutions strive to create spaces that foster both innovation and wellbeing. Few projects embody this balance more completely than Flinders University’s new Health and Medical Research Building (HMRB) in South Australia, which redefines how research environments can reflect cultural values, promote collaboration, and prepare for the future.

At the 2025 Lab Design Conference, Architectus principals Andrew Schunke and Diana Rosenthal shared a compelling look into the design and delivery of Flinders University’s Health and Medical Research Building (HMRB) in South Australia—a project that seamlessly merges sustainability, cultural context, and user wellbeing.

Their session, “Enhancing Research Outcomes Through Sustainable and Innovative Lab Design,” traced the five-year journey that produced this globally recognized research facility, underscoring that cutting-edge science and deeply meaningful design can—and should—coexist.

The Flinders University Health and Medical Research Building was also honored in Denver after winning the Excellence in Interior Design prize in the 2025 Design Excellence Awards. Schunke and Rosenthal accepted the award and gave additional insight into the project during the awards ceremony at the beginning of the conference. The recognition underscored the project’s achievement as both a world-class research environment and a benchmark for integrating sustainability, culture, and human-centered design in laboratory architecture. Read more about this project in our editorial coverage of the Design Excellence Awards.

The 2026 Design Excellence Awards are open for entries through December 5, 2025. Visit our website at https://awards.labdesignconference.com for more information and to enter your lab project!

A stakeholder-driven vision

One of the session’s central themes was the extraordinary depth of stakeholder engagement that shaped the HMRB’s identity. The project began with an open-ended brief, Rosenthal explained, where “the only initial certainty was that the HMRB would serve as a celebration of the best researchers across both of the colleges,” envisioned as a “corner office” for leading academics. With few traditional programmatic requirements, the design team adopted a guiding principle: “to always put the researcher at the center of every decision.”

As Schunke illustrated, the design challenge was formidable. Prior to HMRB, researchers were dispersed across “dark, siloed, separated spaces across about 15 different buildings.” Through more than 250 stakeholder workshops—including town halls, small group interviews, and benchmarking visits—the team pushed conversations beyond incremental improvements (“something slightly better than what they already have,” as Rosenthal put it) to define a truly world-class environment.

A critical insight emerged from the site’s steep 14-meter slope: the new building could act not only as a research hub but also as an “accessible pathway,” connecting the nearby train station, hospital, and campus. This vision positioned HMRB as both a physical and symbolic connector within the university’s health precinct.

Innovation as resilience

Sustainability and adaptability were equally integral to the project. The HMRB achieved Gold WELL and LEED certification, and, as Schunke noted to the Lab Design Conference audience, it is the “first laboratory building in the world to win or receive or be awarded a platinum wide score for digital connectivity.” This achievement highlights the facility’s readiness for a data-driven research future.

Secure your ticket now for the 2026 Lab Design Conference in Orlando—early bird tickets are available through December 31, 2025.

The PC2/BC2 labs—roughly equivalent to a PSL-3 standard in the US—were designed with 50 percent services growth capacity, ensuring long-term flexibility. “We could expand half of the floor into further PC, two BC, two laboratories, without having to push new shafts and other things through the building at that time,” said Schunke. This strategic foresight reflects an understanding of laboratory infrastructure as a 50-year investment.

Perhaps the most surprising design decision was relocating the vivarium to the top floor, rather than the basement—a move prompted by nearby rail construction risks. The result was both practical and uplifting: “The staff space is an absolute penthouse,” Schunke noted, with technicians enjoying “the best views from the whole building along the clean corridor.” This detail captured the project’s holistic approach to safety, function, and occupant wellbeing.

Connecting to country

2025 Lab Design Conference speaker—Diana Rosenthal, principal—education interiors leader, Architectus

The presentation’s most distinctive theme was the integration of First Nations cultural narratives, demonstrating a model for authentic place-based design. Following extensive dialogue with Indigenous elders, four guiding concepts emerged: water, land, weaving, and the “rainbow sands.”

These ideas informed everything from the building’s color palette to its circulation strategy. A “literal interpretation of the Color Gradation” of the rainbow sands shaped the interior wayfinding and stair design, while the overall form of the structure reflected “sort of land mass and escarpment—that protection of caves and rocky outcrops.”

Biophilic design principles further reinforced this connection to place. With more than 5,000 plants incorporated into the architecture and generous views of the surrounding gum tree landscape, “no matter where you stand in the building, you can always have that greenery near to you.”

Among the most innovative features are the three-story “Winter Gardens”—naturally ventilated zones that reduce mechanical cooling demands for more than 100 days a year. “Happy researchers, better research, better grants, more money for the university,” Schunke said to the Lab Design Conference audience. “Hopefully it’s a closed circle.”

Collaboration and transparency

The session also emphasized how the HMRB’s interior planning encourages collaboration and discovery. The design philosophy of “research and learning on display” begins in the main foyer, where large digital screens serve as tools for orientation, marketing, and public engagement.

Internally, visual and physical connections are achieved through voids and switchback stairs, intentionally designed to promote what the team called the “bump factor”—chance interactions across disciplines. Clear sightlines “from the lab into the work area, and also to the outside” foster a strong sense of openness and community.

Accommodating 660 occupants in a predominantly Activity-Based Working (ABW) environment, the building contains just 11 enclosed offices. To prevent visual monotony, open-plan workstations are organized into “clustered neighborhoods” with varied orientations and levels of privacy—an approach informed by tours of other research facilities and direct user feedback.

The architects closed with a defining image: the level-eight boardroom, where high-level strategic and grant meetings take place, features “a direct visual connection into the adjacent lab.” It’s a vivid metaphor for the project’s mission—linking decision-making directly to discovery, and keeping the science itself at the center of attention.

A model for the future

Flinders University’s Health and Medical Research Building stands as a comprehensive case study for laboratory designers worldwide. Through a combination of sustainability, flexibility, cultural respect, and user-centered design, Architectus has created a facility that not only supports research but actively enhances it. As the presenters concluded, the building delivers “outstanding benefits for user wellbeing... and, importantly, advance health and medical research outcomes.”

Lab case studies will be featured at the 2026 Lab Design Conference in Orlando, FL. Join us on May 11–14 for educational sessions exploring the design, construction, renovation, and optimization of lab facilities around the globe. Be in the audience when the next Design Excellence Awards winners are announced to the world. For tickets to the conference, visit https://www.labdesignconference.com/.