Redevelopment of the Cabrini Health Paediatric Ward brought its visual identity in line with the rest of the Cabrini Malvern precinct and aligned the department with Cabrini’s quality of care vision.
Cabrini is owned and operated by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who came to Australia in 1948 to take over the management of a 45-bed community hospital named St Benedict’s.
Cabrini now has 832 beds and a comprehensive range of health services. There are acute facilities at Malvern, Prahran and Brighton, a residential aged-care home at Ashwood, and a rehabilitation service at Elsternwick in Melbourne, Australia.
Cabrini treats 3,000 inpatients and 2,500 day cases annually — from emergency surgeries and treatment to complicated, elective procedures.
At Cabrini’s Health Paediatrics Ward, project architects DesignInc orchestrated the healing experience to start from the entry and thereafter unfold through the space in surprising, and joyful ways.
A light-emitting timber wall system greets you with a moment of happiness, revealing itself in articulate colour forms.
Movement through the ward triggers animations of landscape and animals to the delight of children.
Cabrini Health’s initial brief to DesignInc for the project was to provide a space that ‘engages, stimulates, and entertains’.
DesignInc designed the space to support their philosophy of inclusive, family-engaged ‘child-centred care’.
Patients range in age from young children to adolescents; so DesignInc developed a solution that isn’t age or gender-specific, and furthers Cabrini’s commitment improve health, well-being, and vitality.
DesignInc took a biophilic approach in the use of flowing, rounded forms, natural materials, and use of light.
The extensive use of timber paneling in the corridor – building a barrier up around the wash stations – helped conceal the appearance of clinical elements without cluttering or obstructing the fast-paced, high-performing functions of the ward.
The design team gave literal form to the natural elements referenced in the design on the Lumes Wood light-emitting wall in the corridor.
DesignInc collaborated with art and technology company Eness to implement the panels and program animations that change and grow with interaction.
The animations of animals and landscapes change according to time of day, weather, seasons and holidays, providing a welcome distraction from the medical experience and shifting the perception of the ward environment – needed for parents, siblings, and staff as much as the young patients themselves.
Project Details
Project size – 600 m2
Project Budget – $800,000
Completion date – 2016
Project Team
Architecture
DesignInc
DesignInc is an award-winning architectural and design practice with offices in Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney in Australia.
The DesignInc team for the Cabrini Health Paediatrics Ward included:
Rohan Wilson – Project Director
Leanne Guy – Associate Director
Megan Hendy – Architect
Katie Maclennan – Senior Interior Designer
DesignInc’s multidisciplinary teams are united with a common vision to make a difference to the health and happiness of people’s lives through the quality of the environments they help create.
Photography
Haydn Cattach
Photographer Haydn Cattach lives in Fitzroy and works from a studio in Cremorne, Melbourne. He shoots for design clients focusing on beautiful products and spaces.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge.
Design © 2020 DesignInc. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2020 Haydn Cattach. All Rights Reserved.
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