Completed in 2014, the internationally acclaimed $1.5 billion Queensland Children’s Hospital is considered by the Academy of Design and Health to be a world leader in healthcare design.

Conceived by Conrad Gargett, in joint venture with Lyons, the design is thoughtful, captivating, and pragmatic, with every design element supporting the human experience.

The project has become the blueprint for many hospital designs across Australia.

Corbett Lyon, Director and Co-Founder of Lyons remarked that the project was “an opportunity to contest prevailing paradigms; to radically rethink how a building may both improve on the traditional care model … and also contribute to the city as a civic marker”.

Brisbane’s subtropical climate provides a reference point for the environmental approach taken in the design of this 95,000 m2 building.

This is expressed externally by extensive sun shading, and internally by the tree with a “trunk” (vertical linkages) and “branches” (horizontal linkages), which allow the building to breathe.

These linkages nurture a rich community environment, moving beyond silo departments and uniting diverse cultures.

To date, the design of the Hospital has been awarded with five international design awards.

The twelve-story 95,000-square-metre building is a significant new urban addition to Brisbane’s South Bank precinct.

Its brightly coloured exterior, incorporating the green and purple colouration of the native Bougainvillea plants in the adjacent parklands, speaks of a building designed for children.

In its form and massing, it challenges the conventional model of podium and tower and delivers a medium-rise, sculpted building with landscaped roofscapes.

The building is also highly functional and incorporates some of the world’s most advanced diagnostic, interventional, and treatment facilities.

The colours used on the outside and inside of the building derive from the colours of the Queensland landscape.

These include muted colour tones found in the Queensland outback landscape together with the more vibrant colours of the State’s exotic birds, rainforest butterflies, and flora.

Rooftop gardens, green walls, enclosed courtyard gardens, and views to surrounding parklands all form part of the hospital’s healing environment.

The green roofs on the upper levels are used by patients, families, and staff for passive and active recreation.

On completion in 2014, the Queensland Children’s Hospital was Australia’s largest and most advanced children’s hospital, housing leading edge diagnostic and treatment facilities and spaces for research and teaching.

Not simply a success for its facilities, the building is a welcoming, bright, and supportive environment for health workers and the young patients and families of Queensland.

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