Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in South Brisbane, Queensland Building, Australian Architecture, Images, Architect

Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital

Australian Health Development: 501 Stanley Street, South Brisbane – design by Conrad Gargett Lyons

page updated 25 Oct 2016 with new photos ; 1 Dec 2014

Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in South Brisbane

Location: South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Design: Conrad Gargett Lyons, architects

Australia’s largest Children’s Hospital designed by Conrad Gargett Lyons officially opens

Queensland’s new $1.5B Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital designed by Conrad Gargett Lyons is Australia’s largest and most advanced children’s hospital.

photograph courtesy Lend Lease

“We’re very excited to see the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, which was seven years in the making, become a fully operational children’s health campus,” said Project Director Bruce Wolfe from Conrad Gargett.

photograph courtesy Lend Lease

“The permeability of the design – being accessible and open – connects with public zones and makes the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital a real community building,” he said.

“The hospital also incorporates generous landscaped areas at so many of the levels, allowing access to the outside environment, natural light and fresh air.”

Children’s Health Queensland Chief Executive Dr Peter Steer said building the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital was a highly complex task which has been successfully delivered.

‘‘The contemporary design we envisaged several years ago has been delivered and will allow us to achieve our goal of delivering patient and family-focused healthcare,’’ Dr Steer said.

‘‘I’m not sure there’s a facility like this anywhere else in the country.’’

photograph : Christopher Frederick Jones

Dr Steer said stakeholder engagement had been critical to the project in order to meet the needs of the patient, staff and also the community. ‘‘Considering the community vision has been key to the project’s success and an aspect where I think the intent of the architects has lived true.

photograph : Christopher Frederick Jones

‘‘The design team has ensured the hospital is open to the community through major windows that allow people both to see in and see out from this facility.’’

“This not only helps with finding context while you’re inside the building but also builds community connections – something critical for a children’s hospital.’’

Dubbed a ‘super hospital’, the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital brings staff and services from two hospitals together into a new purpose-designed 359 bed tertiary/quaternary hospital to deliver state-of-the-art paediatric care to the state-wide community.

photograph : Christopher Frederick Jones

The completed hospital forms a new major landmark for Brisbane, connecting with the city’s popular South Bank precinct, Somerville House and St Laurence’s College.

The international award-winning design references the structure of a tree with a ‘trunk’ and ‘branches’ providing vertical and horizontal linkages that unite diverse cultures, moving beyond silo departments and creating a rich community environment.

The tree structure also enables intuitive way-finding and offers greater access to natural light, fresh air and landscaping which are conducive to a healing environment.
Extensive sun shading responds to Brisbane’s subtropical climate and forms a major design element with purple and green blades referencing the surrounding nature, while expansive openings in the building’s façade connect the internal spaces to the outside.

photo : Christopher Frederick Jones

The landscape architecture, carried out solely by Conrad Gargett, plays a major role in the design of the hospital and includes a large green sloping roof, transplanted 30 year-old fig trees, state-of-the-art play areas and a number of roof gardens for recreation and rehabilitation. The holistic design of the hospital highlights the wellness benefits of nature with healing gardens and therapeutic outdoor spaces.

The design of the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital has already been recognised on the international stage with Conrad Gargett Lyons winning the prestigious Future Health Project Award in the Design & Health International Academy Awards last year.

photograph courtesy Lend Lease

Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in South Brisbane – Building Information

The Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital is Australia’s largest and most advanced children’s hospital. It brings staff and services from two hospitals together into a new
purpose-designed 359 bed tertiary/quaternary hospital to deliver state-of-the-art paediatric care to the statewide community.

Its innovative design won the prestigious Future Health Project Award at the 2014 Design and Health International Academy Awards.

The hospital has been designed to reduce stress levels, make the patient and visitor experience as comfortable as possible and aid patient recovery.

Contemporary research increasingly shows the significant influence nature and the built environment have on health and wellbeing. The landscape design of the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital has been informed by this research.

The Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital presents an excellent case study illustrating the health and environmental benefits that can be achieved through contemporary green design.

photo : Christopher Frederick Jones

The landscape design incorporates an expansive green sloping roof and numerous roof gardens, providing spaces for recreation and rehabilitation. The landscaping and public areas also offer a place for reflection and contemplation, and areas for staff to spend time during rest breaks.

23% of the site area is covered by ‘conventional roof’. The remaining 77% are public open space (including roads) or roof gardens.

Six 30 year-old fig trees were transplanted to the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital Plaza to provide instant shade, ambiance and scale for the new hospital.

The roof gardens are exceptional in both quality and quantity and include private, public and therapeutic spaces.

photographs : Christopher Frederick Jones

The total area of roof garden is over 3,200sqm, features over 46,000 individual plants, offers 320sqm of high quality turf, eight garden shelters, 12 green monoliths and 33 epiphyte columns.

The green sloping roof is made up of 1,400 individual planting cassettes and contains a total of 23,000 plants.

picture : Christopher Hall Jordan