Good design provides a platform to transcend aesthetics to deliver benefits well beyond the built form.

These benefits include improved models of care and safety, enhanced treatment outcomes and more dignified experiences for patients, aged care residents, staff and families.

For decades architects, designers, clinicians and academics working in the health sector have been asking important questions about the impact of infrastructure, and the built environment.

Questions like, can a health facility be both functional and aesthetically pleasing?

Should we focus solely on the efficient treatment of illness, or should we also consider what factors can promote health and wellbeing?

And ultimately, can the way we design our healthcare environments encourage a greater sense of wellbeing?

We may intuitively know that aspects like natural light, green spaces and fresh air can make us feel better and more relaxed. And while global research broadly supports this, the conversation is now turning to how we can effectively measure the impacts of ‘good design’, in the same way we measure a building’s carbon footprint.

Stefano Scalzo, Executive General Manager of Infrastructure Planning at the Victorian Department of Health, sat down with Professor Julie Bernhardt, Co-head of Stroke at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, as they talk about good design in health infrastructure - and why it matters.

By focusing on the needs of residents in public aged care, we can create a supportive environment that enhances wellness and promotes independence.

We’re building and upgrading public sector residential aged care services across Victoria, using supportive design and resident insights to improve wellbeing.

Sally Delany, Manager Design Services at the Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA), explains the thinking behind design choices.

Sally says that designing with different needs in mind benefits all residents.

‘It is well documented that connection to nature in built form enhances the environment and our experience of wellness. This is an important consideration for all staff, visitors and particularly residents.

‘By applying principles that support residents with dementia, for example avoiding busy patterns that can cause confusion, we can help residents with a range of needs. It also allows for residents to stay in the same room even if their needs change over time.’

A calming environment is not just good for residents, it’s good for everyone. Sally has visited facilities after they’ve opened to see how the design is working in practice.

Speaking to residents, staff and visitors at some of our residential facilities we have recently built and upgraded, supportive features include:

• choosing which spaces they want to be in, and level of involvement with others
• personalising and being in control of their own environment.

‘Residents can adjust heating and lighting. They can choose to pop outside or to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. These are the activities of daily living that you may do in your own home.

‘It is important people have that autonomy and feel safe in a space that feels like home,’ adds Sally.

Murrenda (the $81.58 million new Wantirna residential aged care facility) supports care for a range of complex needs including mobility and dementia. Memory boxes with personal items at the entrance of each room add a homelike and comforting touch.

Our person-centred design approach ensures our facilities create a homelike environment providing choice and independence alongside familiarity and comfort.

This supports residents to have ongoing meaningful engagement in life in a place where they feel comfortable.

Richard Blight is a Director at Blight, Blight & Blight – the architecture firm who designed the $3.2 million dementia-friendly unit at Creswick Nursing Home. Richard explains how their team engages with residents as part of the design process.

When building or refurbishing a public residential aged care facility, we implement design strategies to create a homelike environment, including:

• floorplans modelled on a small household
• private bedrooms with ensuites that can be personalised
• easy access to outdoor areas
• a diverse range of common areas.

Community contribution can be seen throughout Wonthaggi Hospital’s recently completed $115 million expansion.

That’s thanks to several hard-working volunteers who were invited to have their say in the massive project’s design. This included a new emergency department, inpatient ward and operating theatres.

Inverloch resident Terry Shannon, 81, along with other members of the Community Advisory Committee (CAC), contributed to the design of the new hospital expansion. They gave feedback on features as varied as:

• overhead lighting
• patient comfort
• security
• way-finding
• decoration.

Since the expansion project started, community volunteers with diverse backgrounds in psychology, engineering and health, have worked with the project’s architects, building contractors and services engineers. They have helped deliver the redevelopment’s first stage.

Mr Shannon says they all shared a common desire to contribute to an important community project. One that would continue to be a cornerstone of the community for decades to come.

He was pleasantly surprised at how much the group’s input was welcomed by professionals throughout the design process. Design contributions from the community group include:

• reflecting the area and its history in the design
• providing easy access to public transport and parking
• preserving patient dignity
• ensuring the safety for staff and visitors alike.

One thing the design team and community members agreed on was the hospital should have plenty of natural light. Most patient areas have large windows with garden views to provide a more pleasant, ‘people oriented’ experience.

Even operating theatres have high-mounted clerestory windows, so natural light gets in and privacy is maintained.

An Order of Australia medal from 2020 acknowledges Mr Shannon’s life-long and generous voluntary community contributions.

Mr Shannon keeps himself busy. He still regularly surfs and cycles around 100 kilometres a week. He is a Justice of the Peace and contributes to his local hospital.

He has spent 10 years volunteering with Wonthaggi Hospital’s pastoral care team. He was a perfect choice to be asked to join the new hospital’s design CAC.

Bass Coast Health CEO Jan Child says involving the local community in planning the new hospital was just as important as incorporating the needs of doctors and staff.

‘After all, it’s their hospital,’ says Ms Child.

Volunteers were involved in the project from the first day in May 2018 when funding for the Wonthaggi Hospital expansion was announced, through to its recent opening five years later.

A Clinical Services Plan outlined medical requirements for the new building and provided a roadmap to the expanded hospital becoming a sub-regional health service. However, there’s no rule book for what the everyday patient might want or need, explains Jan.

Learn more about the Wonthaggi Hospital expansion at its dedicated project page.

Visual mock-ups form important part of design process

The mock ups provide a physical sample to represent the final product.

They allow the project team to review finer details including material choices, finishes and detailing.

Milestone reached with first three buildings topped out

The first three buildings on the new Footscray Hospital site have reached structural completion - marking the project’s halfway point.

The buildings include:

Victoria University education and research centre

The education and research centre will link to Victoria University’s Footscray Park campus via a public-use pedestrian footbridge across Ballarat Road. It will be used for nurse training, research and learning spaces.

Commercial building

The commercial building on Tiernan Street will house a health and medical precinct across its five storeys. It will also have a childcare facility and retail spaces.

Car park building

Once complete, the car park building will have four storeys of staff parking and end-of-trip facilities. It will integrate green wall gardens, a gymnasium and other retail at street and ground levels. There will also be community spaces opening onto the Village Green.

An exhibition celebrating locals and their contribution to the community has been unveiled on the new Footscray Hospital site’s hoarding.

Member for Footscray Katie Hall MP launched the Faces of Footscray portrait series. It features eight large-scale portraits of hospital staff, volunteers and community members and links to short films detailing each participant’s connection to place, culture, and community.

Plenary Health’s New Footscray Hospital Project Chair, Kelvyn Lavelle, said ‘by sharing their individual stories, our Faces of Footscray are helping connect the western suburbs community to their new hospital’.

Faces of Footscray features the work of visual artists from the West - director and producer, Mika Tran, and photographer, Thuy Vy. Together they have highlighted the people who embody what makes the West special.

You can see the exhibition on the hoarding of the hospital site on the corner of Geelong Road and Federal Street.

Learn more about the Faces of Footscray exhibition on their website.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Connectivity Centre partnered with the gforce apprenticeships team to host an interactive try-a-trade and networking morning.

Staff from a variety of community organisations attended. These included the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Big Build Group Training Organisations, local TAFE and Polytechnic staff, employment agencies and general community organisations.

Participants had the opportunity to connect and try their hand at some plumbing and electrical work with the interactive Mas Experience Careers Trailer.

More than 20 women attended from a range of learning levels and trades, including carpentry, electrotechnology and plumbing. The event connected people with agency information about study and employment, and opportunities on the New Footscray Hospital Project. 

The Connectivity Centre and NFH Jobs Hub continues to support the West through connecting the local community to jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities on the new hospital site and at Victoria University Polytechnic. 

Drop-in sessions are held every Tuesday 10am - 12pm to assist students and job seekers interested in working on the new Footscray Hospital.

Job readiness information sessions are also held on a weekly basis. For more information contact footscray@theconnectivitycentre.com.au or visit 138 Nicholson Street, Footscray.  
 

Footscray Hospital medical staff ate their daily meals in a formal dining area until the 1970s. Staff were in two separate dining rooms, one for doctors and the other for nurses and medical staff.

They were served lunch and dinner by a maître d’ and waitresses. The tables were set with silverware and linen tablecloths, and a late supper was served at 11.30pm for hospital staff doing night shift.

Contact the project hotline at (03) 9999 1985 or email nfhenquiry@health.vic.gov.au.

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Partnerships

This project is being delivered by the Victorian Health Building Authority in partnership with Western Health, and the Plenary Health consortium.