Woods Bagot's conceptual design for St Vincent's O'Brien Centre in Sydney has won an international award from Wordl Architecture News (WAN) in the Healthcare sector.
The firms were joint winners with SOM (Skidmore, Owings& Merrill LLP), who won for their unbuilt Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The Sydney facility will be set up to treat young mental health patients under 30 and has therefore used a number of spaces appealing to young people including 'chill-out' areas and multi-functional spaces to provide a 'home away from home.
Different areas will be for music production, making art, meditation,dance or relaxation as the design philosophy is closely linked to the idea of 'care with design'.
“Woods Bagot have gone beyond the brief in terms of the level of detail applied to this building, to the level of designing window seating that encourage the patient to sit there, integrating natural light and nature as a key way to alleviate stress,” stated the WAN jury.
The refurbishment will be located on the top two floors of the existing O’Brien Centre within St Vincent’s Hospital which will provide 1600 metres squared of floor space with light and views to be key features of the space.
David Faktor, of St Vincent’s Private Hospital said:
“We worked very closely with Woods Bagot to come up with a design and layout that would best compliment the unique type of care we’re delivering. I think the most striking feature of the Unit is the extraordinary balance between creating a safe and functional treatment facility that is warm and inviting. Achieving this balance was pivotal in terms of attaining the best patient outcomes. In the time that we’ve been operational we’ve had terrific feedback from clinicians and patients alike that Woods Bagot have achieved this balance.
Images courtesy of Woods Bagot
