Blog
A Hospital That Doesn’t Feel like a Hospital
One look at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, and it’s clear that something different is afoot. This hospital doesn’t feel like a hospital at all.
Features
The outside architecture features brightly colored fins, stacked buildings, rooftop gardens and balconies that jut out at different angles making the property look less like a hospital and more like an art museum or community center—and that’s exactly the point.
Research Based Design
There’s plenty of research showing how access to nature, daylighting, and fresh air can aid in the healing process, and this has driven many healthcare projects to dip their toes into “greener” waters, adding larger windows in patient rooms, installing a green roof, or providing a garden or walking path on campus.
Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, takes this effort to a whole new level—and shows what can happen when you combine a dedicated project team and owner, evidence-based design (EBD), and a plan that integrates landscape elements into the building design.
Rooftop Gardens
The design provides space for 11 rooftop gardens and a sloping green roof. “Only 23 percent of the site area is covered by a conventional roof,” says Katharina Nieberler-Walker, a senior associate at Conrad Gargett, which partnered with Lyons (Melbourne, Australia), an architectural and urban design practice, on the $1.2 billion project. “The remaining 77 percent is public open space or roof gardens.”
Accessable Balconies
In addition to the rooftop spaces, patients, families, and staff can get views to the surrounding area as well as some fresh air via a number of balconies that are located at the ends of the public circulation paths on many of the floors.
For an in-depth look at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, read “Lady Cilento Branches Out In Australia.”
Souce: Anne Dinardo of Healthcare Design Magazine http://www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com/blogs/anne-dinardo/good-natured-design
