Zhipeng Lu is a PhD and Associate Professor at Texas A&M University’s Department of Architecture.
Zhipeng Lu is the director of the first-year Master of Architecture Healthcare Design Studio at Texas A&M University. He’s well-known for his support of evidence-based designs and offers students opportunities to work with hospitals, health systems, users, and firms.
Together, these efforts help prepare students for the real world and teach them skills to manage projects. His large-scale undergraduate class engages students of various majors to design health environments and conduct research. This increases the impact of healthcare education.
Lu has been a major contributor to Texas A&M over the last year. He launched a design for aging course, where students gain valuable hands-on experiences through classes that are held in long-term care facilities, which allows direct interaction with residents and managers.
Lu’s curriculum was further enhanced by the inclusion of social and behavioral factors. This helped students to understand how environments affect people’s mental, physical, and social health.
Lu also invited students to participate in a facility guidelines institute workshop, which reimagined an operating room. Students were able to work with doctors, nurses and designers, as well as collaborate on a whitepaper and a peer-reviewed article.
Lu also served as a member of the steering committee for the 2022 International Union of Architects Year of Design for Health (UIA). He coordinated multiple events, and led an international student contest.
Lu, who has represented the U.S. in the UIA Public Health Group for the past decade as an official member, has also helped to establish many avenues of knowledge exchange and professional development at a global scale.
Lu’s commitment to healthcare design education, and his efforts to create opportunities for young architects has significantly influenced the field. This is not only beneficial for his students and industry, but also healthcare design and research in general.
