In the April 2026 issue of the National Geographic magazine, m3architecture’s Minderoo Centre Plastics and Human Health Laboratory has been featured. The article by Kevin Dupzyk follows the work of Cassandra Rauert, a chemist who sought to build a completely plastic-free “clean room”. 

m3architecture was engaged by the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Science (QAEHS) working with building contractor FARA to create such a laboratory to facilitate groundbreaking research in microplastics within human tissue. After research into building materials contents and emissions, the resultant design is an air-pressurised, 250 square foot (23 square metre) facility with floors, walls and ceilings made of stainless steel and molten metal materials, eliminating plastic contamination. 

Director and lead architect on this project, Michael Christensen, explains how a lab of this kind differs in cost by more than four times the cost per square foot of a conventional lab similarly equipped and sized.  

The Minderoo Centre Plastics and Human Health Laboratory is situated on Turrbal and Jagera peoples’ land. The project has been highly regarded by the Australian Institute of Architects, receiving a commendation for Small Project Architecture at a Regional level, and an award for Small Project Architecture at a State level in 2023.

The Queensland Jury cites: 

“The Minderoo Centre demonstrates the skill of the architect in researching and delivering for technically complex project requirements. This project is not about beauty; it’s about process, knowledge, and capability, and the architect has harnessed all of these to dig deep and meet functional scientific requirements for a nanoplastic and human health laboratory that is free of plastics and other contaminants. 

The ability of the architect to go ‘back to basics’ and test every element of the design and construction, from floor to walls to ceilings to equipment, in order to remove all plastic shows a commitment to the demands of a tenacious brief for a unique and world-leading research facility.”