Professional Profile: Wan Leung
Lab Design News spoke to Wan Leung, AIA, principal of lab design at FCA, about the “spark” that led him to lab design, his favorite and perhaps most influential architectural project, and his thoughts on how AI and automation may influence the future of lab design
Be sure to watch Wan’s free on demand webinar on “The Importance of Advance Lab Planning,” and read his accompanying article, both done in collaboration with his colleague (and Lab Design News editorial board member) Bob Skolozdra.
Q: What sparked your interest in designing labs—was there a defining moment that led you to this career?
A: I started my professional career in healthcare design, working with the brightest planning minds of that time. The complexity of the work and the environments we designed for the important healing within these spaces is very fulfilling. One of the most interesting parts of the process was seeing how patient experience and caregiving was balanced with planning considerations. This is primarily what drove my interest in being a subject matter expert for healthcare delivery. Healthcare delivery, though, was not enough, as my curious mind wanted to understand how the treatments were created and how discoveries were translated into medicine and technology. My first true lab design project involved a “unified science center,” which included instructional labs for basic sciences alongside research sciences. Through this project, I was able to experience a broad range of scientific and space-type needs, which provided insight into their diverse requirements.
Q: What is your favorite building, lab-related or not?
A: Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers’ Centre Pompidou has always spoken to me, and is still very much in alignment with the programmatically complex buildings I work on today. The building was designed for flexibility over 50 years ago, before “flexibility” became a catchphrase, marking it as ahead of its time. To achieve this need to accommodate unknown, flexible future uses, organized complexity or chaos was used to accommodate all of the systems required for these changing needs. All of this was expressed and visible, which is quite different from our modern approach of concealing the working building.
In a lab or in a hospital, great care is taken to ensure the building systems and life safety systems are coordinated so as not to hinder the important work being performed. For example, the Pompidou features color-coded building systems, which we also use today to identify laboratory gases and utilities. Additionally, the idea of a town or a series of neighborhoods was key to the planning of the Centre, which we often consider during our planning for research communities.
Looking back, perhaps this building has had even more influence on my career path than I originally thought.
Q: How do you see AI and automation influencing lab design in the coming years?
A: The most impactful influence will be on workflow efficiency and the subsequent dynamic shift in space needs, ranging from equipment and instrumentation to technicians and staff needs. AI will help reduce time-consuming trial-and-error through computational means, allowing scientists to begin optimal experiments more quickly and effectively.
Space planning considerations are most seen in testing laboratories, where a closed automated platform can perform a variety of tests. AI can assist in determining the validity of the test outcomes, and potentially return tests to the starting conditions for re-testing without staff intervention. But these automated lines do not always follow the “lab module” neatly. They are also capable of storing consumables and even retaining test samples, changing the way storage is planned. Perhaps the biggest change will be to staffing, as the type of staff will grow to include those with specialty skills suited for maintaining and operating the automation platform.
Q: What is one important “soft skill” that all lab design experts should have?
A: Adaptability is critical, and maintaining a flexible mindset is key to being able to adjust to situations and challenges. As we plan and design labs, we must remember that we are designing for intelligent, curious minds engaged in research and making discoveries—some of which are entirely new to the world. To support this, we must embrace flexibility, analysis, and innovative approaches to problem solving, allowing our design work to evolve alongside scientific progress.
Q: What strategies do you use to engage scientists and researchers in the design process and gather meaningful input?
A: I often begin each project with the goal of understanding the researcher’s point of view, goals, and the organization's strategic plans. Once we have this basic knowledge, we are able to help them on a journey to identify potential resource and organizational gaps that may present obstacles to achieving their goals. This can include peer comparisons, as most researchers are typically interested in what their peers are doing and how well they are doing it. The discussion then evolves into how to improve their work potential through knowledge sharing; typically, through affinitive collaboration by examining “what if” scenarios.
