Vision Magazine
34
Isn’t design outside the square that much more
expensive?
Passing value management can be like running the
gauntlet. Was that your experience here?
If everything is non-standard materials and shapes
that is certainly true. There are definitely economies
by following the tried and true patterns. Here we
wanted to ensure a lively, really welcoming building
and if it meant breaking with convention and it
could meet budget, which we did, then that was
well worth the extra effort.
It had to survive that process or disappear. Thankfully
we didn’t need to apply external screens or some
of the usual ESD entourage because ESD is already
intrinsically within the building so we didn’t have to
hang anything off it. That saved a lot of headaches with
compromising its expression.
What were the keys to that?
The high visibility site and spectacular river red
gums were pretty central to our ideas. The corners
are tapered to reduce its bulk. And it has a lively
presence and surface which glass delivered.
That mapping of its ‘skin’ with a banded, folded
glass facade really responds to the bark pattern of
the trees.
That unbroken link to the tree trunks, canopies and
beyond plays a big part. We experimented with
surfaces and tried to create a really responsive form
to the site and also to staff/patient use. There is a
diagonal cut across the building on the east and
north elevation where it appears to cascade out
while the eastern facade has subtle banding.
What does the project say to patients, staff and
passers-by?
That hospitals and clinics don’t have to be
ponderous, maze-like buildings. Statement
buildings can be quite modest in size and quiet
in expression yet still command respect. This one
occupies a prominent corner site and realizes
that opportunity to provide a human scale and
experience rather than the dread commonly
associated with such places.
What about practicality and ease of fit-out with its
irregular floorplan?
The interiors don’t jump around all over the place,
or appear in any way awkward. The effect is of
subtle shifts in geometry and that actually promotes
quite calm, flexible spaces. In reality the interiors
are mostly rectangular.
Were there any fears or concerns in acceptance of
your concept?
Our biggest fear was that through the value
management process we were restricted to a single
skin building. Most are double-skinned but with the
shapes we imagined, it would have been very difficult.
That was probably our saviour. We worried about
traffic noise, but really there is very little traffic noise
and the acoustic performance is surprisingly good.
Was there any client concern about the ambitious
use and expression of the glass envelope?
Yes, initially. Builders occasionally want to cut-corners
and it would have been easy for them to say ‘look, we
don’t have the funds to do such complex glazing,’ and
for the design to be simplified. Fortunately the glazing
contractor wanted to work with our design. By the
time we had prepared our documentation and it hit the
shop-drawing stage it was pretty well worked out.
Yet you never know whether a building really works
until it’s completed. There’s that unpredictable,
invisible quality that no amount of 3D software can
fully predict.
That’s absolutely true. You can use software to model
and climb into your buildings and it’s