Fernando Faugno – Design Director, Natalie Geier, Jarvis Pinto, Luis Schilling from JCY Architects and Urban Designers, Cox Architecture, Billard Leece with HKS Inc are the latest winners of the Corian® Design Awards Edition 3 for the commercial category.
The Perth Children’s Hospital is a new paediatric tertiary and quaternary hospital providing world class inpatient, out-patient and short-stay care as well as providing significant integrated research and educational facilities for medical professionals. This engaging facility has been designed from the viewpoint of a child’s eye and seeks to reduce the anxiety that may be/can be associated with hospital visits.
The atrium space at the heart of the hospital is a hive of activity and wonderment, admitting plentiful natural light into the whole volume and into the adjoining spaces at each level. It is easy to find the playful main reception desk inside the main entry. It has been designed so that there are no visual impediments preventing even the smallest of children from being seen.
The cloud-like form of the reception desk cleverly conceals the localised air-conditioning equipment located at the rear of the desk to serve the reception staff. Appearing as would a control station within a spaceship the reception desk is deliberately enticing for children to create a sense of excitement and wonder to reduce the anxiety that may be/can be associated with hospital visits.
‘Although Corian® can be shaped and moulded into such a large amorphic structure, we learned that creating large scaled curved forms requires considerable hard and soft structural support, which necessitated a physically and technically demanding exercise. The resultant form is a ‘tour de force’ of collaboration between the design team and the cabinetmaking team in achieving such an amazing result.
The result is easily captured in the imagination seen on the faces of children and their families visiting, or being treated within the hospital. The outcome of the largest element crafted from Corian®, the atrium reception desk is a beautiful cloud-like form that positively elevates the mood of all visitors, who cannot help but feel welcomed into this exceptional world-class children’s hospital.
Photography: Shannon McGrath
Corian® Design Awards 2018: Win a trip to Japan in 2019
The Corian® Design Awards recognises local designers for their creative use of Corian® solid surface material in a commercial or residential design project.
Entry to the Corian® Design Awards for 2018 is open now. All specifiers, architects/ designers and students are eligible to enter. Partners (such as shop fitters and Corian Fabricators) may enter on behalf of the designer.
There are two categories: Residential and Commercial. At the end of each quarter (March, June, September and December), a winner will be announced for each category, who will be shortlisted to go into the end of year pool of candidates to select the overall winners. The overall winner for each category will be announced in January 2019.
