Issue #71 / Australia $16.50 / New Zealand $17.50 / Singapore $12.95 / U.S. $21.99
A professional resource for the design curious.
Bendigo Hospital, Bates Smart & Silver Thomas Hanley Jackalope Hotel Mornington Peninsula, Carr William Smart, Smart Design Studio The Working Capitol Robinson Road Singapore, HASSELL Nik Karalis, Woods Bagot TVNZ Auckalnd, Warren and Mahoney The ‘design pharmacy’ issue.
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The oft-opposing principles of medical-based thinking and evidencebased design have long been a sticking point for healthcare designers. The new Bendigo Hospital by Bates Smart and Silver Thomas Hanley shows us they need not be mutually exclusive. There is a sweet-spot to be found. It just takes an intelligent and intuitive design touch.
In Good Health Bendigo Hospital by Bates Smart & Silver Thomas Hanley Words Marg Hearn Photography Peter Clarke
“ It was about softening the architecture, giving it multiple visual layers to appeal to people moving through the space. So the built form becomes the restorative environment that replenishes them and takes a load off their shoulders,� says Bates Smart director, Kristen Whittle. INDESIGN
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Bendigo Hospital, Site Floor Plan 1 Mechanical Plant Room 2 Staff Change Rooms 3 Staff Lobby 4 Bio-Medical Room 5 Dirty Linen Dispatch 6 Public Waiting Area 7 General Reception 8 Interview Rooms 9 Mezzanine Bridges (x2) 10 Central Ground Floor Atrium & Lobby 11 Public Lift Lobby 12 Internal Street Void 13 Staff Lounge 14 Trolley Storage 15 Clinical Trial Rooms 16 Staff Workstations 17 Public Lift Lobby 18 Bathrooms 19 Retail Mall 20 General Waiting Lounge
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As one of the practices responsible for delivering the multi-awardwinning Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, Bates Smart is a pioneer in healthcare design. That project is over five years old now, yet remains a benchmark in how to create a normalised environment within a setting that’s often riddled with complex levels of criticality. The practice has since designed a number of other major hospitals, all the while continuing to embrace a patient-centric approach, underpinned with evidence-based design principles. In the recently completed $AUD630million Bendigo Hospital, which at an impressive 95,000 square-metres is the largest regional hospital development in Victoria, Silver Thomas Hanley in collaboration with Bates Smart makes the necessary integration of these principles with medical-based thinking look effortless. Reconciling potential conflict between the two traditionally opposed methodologies involved implementing positive choices that distil the hospital experience, by ultimately de-institutional-ising the building. It’s particularly evident in the main public areas (designed by Bates Smart), where the internal street, which forms part of the precinct’s external road network, is key to organising the interior’s overall design concept. Not just a hospital foyer, this north-south running thoroughfare is treated as a new civic space for the people of Bendigo that supports the architects’ intuitive wayfinding strategy. “We wanted to create an entry that’s clear, visible and
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highly efficient,” says Melbourne-based studio director at Bates Smart, Mark Healey. “It’s important that people can immediately understand where the critical building circulation paths are, enabling them to easily get where they need to go.” A simple layout, with minimal reliance on signage, generates intuitive, stress-free circulation, underscored by a sense of efficiency and the required level of safety. It’s a friendly proposition reinforced by the design’s strong materiality, a resounding feature that defines the welcoming ambience of these public areas. Incorporating tactile elements into the scheme is a result of Bates Smart’s ongoing research into ‘salutogenesis’, a holistic theory where the focus remains squarely on supporting healing and wellness, rather than focusing on the disease. Functionality could have very easily been compromised here, but refreshingly – it isn’t. As Bates Smart director, Kristen Whittle, also based in Melbourne, explains: “It was about softening the architecture, giving it multiple visual layers to appeal to people moving through the space. So the built form becomes the restorative environment that replenishes them and takes a load off their shoulders.” Handcrafted elements in the public areas induce the desired level of comfort and calm, while also referencing the craft culture of Bendigo, instilling community connection.
Page 112: The rooftop garden is easily accessible to all occupants, and visible from inside the mental health ward to provide a visual and therapeutic connection to nature. Page 114-115: A bespoke and intimately woven timber ceiling runs between the hospital’s two entrances. The woven pattern filters daylight from the skylights above, providing warmth and dappled light to increase occupants’ wellbeing.
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Pattern and colour in two Esther Stewart murals on either side of a central footbridge add energy and vitality, although it’s the honey-coloured timber screen installed at roof level that completely transforms the internal street space. This undulating woven structure acts as a canopy that creates dappled light, producing an environment as close to being outdoors and surrounded by nature as possible. At ground level, it actually echoes the experience of walking along a tree-lined street, with retail offerings and coffee shops on either side. While the joinery’s detailing is exquisite and contributes beautifully to the interior’s craft-based expression, the structure also improves the overall quality of light. Achieving an inviting glow in the main public areas is a highly desirable outcome; both Healey and Whittle are acutely aware of the healing properties of natural light and understandably manoeuvre it to the design’s advantage. “People intrinsically feel more comfortable when they can see outside and are surrounded by natural light, which is why our planning is largely about light, views and orientation. It also addresses comprehensibility and the understanding that wherever you are in this deep plan building, you’re always close to natural light,” notes Whittle. The architects have taken this connection to the outside one step further as well, by bringing the outdoors inside.
Three native trees punctuate the street, reinforcing the building’s biophilic design ethos, and a series of courtyards and decks provide greenspace across all eight floors. These accessible gardens directly engage with each clinical department to provide staff and patients with much-needed areas of respite. The mental health department, for example, is positioned on the hospital’s second level so it’s accessible to specific courtyards and has views of the rooftop garden, promoting increased levels of comfort. Bendigo Hospital’s success lies in a happy marriage of form and function, in realising clinical performance criteria via inclusive, joyful design. A simple thing like avoiding unnecessary clutter ensures the internal street is hygienic and easy-to-clean or adjusting the balustrade height from a standard 1,800 millimetres to 2,400 millimetres on certain footbridges incorporates a higher level of safety without concession. “It’s about creating an environment totally focused on healing,” says Healey. “The level of stress people are under has to be managed carefully and so understanding the human condition is crucial to providing uplifting spaces, giving patients and their families the opportunity to exist in a state of mental and physical normality.” batessmart.com, sth.com.au
Page 116: State-of-the-art medical technologies are cohesively integrated into the spaces, rather than simply filling the rooms with equipment. This page: The building’s façade is distinguished by a pattern of glass panels with high reflectivity. These windows glisten and mirror the surrounding natural landscape, blending the building into its surrounds in a natural and inviting way.
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