Canberra Hospital expansion by BVN

While hospitals are often conceived as sterile places, the expansion of Canberra Hospital thoughtfully reinterprets the vernacular of Australian health facilities.

This project is the most recent addition to BVN’s nationwide portfolio of healthcare projects, including the recently completed Logan Hospital redevelopment in Queensland. The firm takes a holistic approach, designing a hospital that balances sustainability with the practical and emotional needs of staff, patients and visitors. The expansion was approached as a collaboration between hospital user groups, the community and staff. The result is a series of thoughtful interventions and material choices that harmonise to create a welcoming – albeit unexpected – and stimulating environment.

The firm takes a holistic approach, designing a hospital that balances sustainability with the practical and emotional needs of staff, patients and visitors.

The expansion of the nine-storey building in Woden included a new critical services building that houses the new emergency department, a reception area, family respite lounge, operating theatres, day surgery with expanded recovery areas, an intensive care unit with outdoor terraces and inpatient wards.

Generating welcome interest upon entry, the geometric facade juxtaposes with a sinuous interior, complemented by timber and ample natural light to imbue a warm and cocooning feel. Timber battens line the curved reception area, which also serves as a meeting hub with outdoor terraces and courtyards. The organic theme persists through the reception space; round seating arrangements nestled around lush greenery are scattered throughout, while circle skylights encourage one to look up, as do sunlit seating nooks that look to the distant mountains.

Generating welcome interest upon entry, the geometric facade juxtaposes with a sinuous interior, complemented by timber and ample natural light to imbue a warm and cocooning feel.

In the patient care areas, intuitive colour-coded wayfinding featuring vibrant pink, green, purple and yellow hues adds visual interest and stimulates a positive air. These bright colours are complemented by artworks from local artists and celebrate the Canberra locale and its First Nations culture. The 24,073 shimmering metal discs at the entry to the hospital building form an artwork depicting healing pathways and the role of community in the journey, completed by Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi artist Lynnice Church.

As a clinical space, functionality is naturally incorporated into all aspects of the design. In the private rooms, sleeping quarters are integrated alongside more conveniently placed entertainment units and joinery. Meanwhile, the family respite lounge features shower facilities, resting pods, food preparation areas and work desks.

“The expansion of Canberra Hospital will unite healthcare and community in an environmentally friendly, wellbeing-oriented campus,” says Julian Ashton, principal at BVN.

Beyond the conceptual and practical qualities of the design, BVN also sets a sustainability benchmark. The expansion is the first fully electric hospital building in Australia, is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy and incorporates waste streaming stations as well as passive design principles such as sun shading.

“The expansion of Canberra Hospital will unite healthcare and community in an environmentally friendly, wellbeing-oriented campus,” says Julian Ashton, principal at BVN. “Our approach to this project included a strong focus on engaging with the local community to really understand how the new facilities would be used and how the spaces could bring additional value to the people who use them.”

Canberra’s largest new healthcare hub is fundamentally different to other traditional hospital designs; it feels approachable, warm and comfortable for staff, patients and visitors. In this way, BVN overturns the accepted narrative that hospitals should look and feel a certain way, setting an exciting precedent for sustainable, collaborative and holistic design in the healthcare industry for the future.

Architecture and interior design by BVN. Build by Multiplex. Landscape design by Inspired Exteriors. Engineering by Partridge and R Balas Consulting. Bricklaying by The Brickwork Co.