With the opening of the new Footscray Hospital in Victoria, the community has gained not just a superb facility to enhance health and wellbeing, but a singular precinct that supports people.

The project, delivered as a public private partnership by Plenary Health consortium, in partnership with the Victorian Government and Western Health provides outstanding amenities for Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne and its community.

Designed by COX Architecture and Billard Leece Partnership (BLP), the state-of-the-art hospital is more than simply a single structure, with five interconnected buildings arranged around a central village green. Landscape design is by Tract, and this large green space is the beating heart of the hospital as it becomes the place for all manner of social interaction for staff, patients and visitors.

“The landscape and urban design work together to create a green civic heart that centres the wellbeing of patients and staff and invites the wider community in. This is a truly integrated healthcare design, with biodiverse native planting, generous courtyards and green roofs offering restorative visual and physical access to nature at all levels,” says Rob Copeland, Senior Principal Landscape Architect and urban Designer at Tract.

The hospital has been dubbed the ‘People’s Hospital’ as the architects have re-imagined the idea of what a hospital could and should be. Putting people first, the design acknowledges practical needs, but the detailing, thought and resolution responds to the emotions and requirements of all within the precinct.

As Mark Mitchell, Principal at BLP, explains, “The experience of the patient and their family/carer is central to all design decisions, in order to support their care and recovery.  So we have provided the environment that the clinical team need to deliver effective care, but the ‘more’ comes from what else is available to patients and the broader community to support their health and wellness – gardens and fresh air in every ward, welcoming access to the hospital from all corners of the site, facilities that draw the community into the hospital, even if they are not unwell; a campus full of places to connect with others, to eat, to build strength, to learn, to reflect.”

To ensure the community was socially invested in the project the architects engaged with the local community, Western Health staff, volunteers and multiple diverse panels to ascertain needs. However, it was imperative that the partnership between the two architecture practices was in sync, in order to deliver the very best outcome for the project.

“A key principle from before our collaboration commenced was to form a team that was unified and seamless – a unified vision to create a hospital that is in and of its community and seamless through one’s journey as they experience the new hospital. A design approach that feels familiar for the People’s Hospital rather than a typical clinical design approach,” reflects Paul Curry, Director at COX Architecture.

The exterior of the hospital employs a white, wave-like façade that visually breaks the bulk of the buildings, and the curved form becomes a continuum inside as well.

Official entry is at the porte cochère and there is direct access to the carpark from here. However, there are multiple entry points to the hospital and clear wayfinding inside provides the visitor with secure pathways as they move between departments.

The interior is spacious, light-filled with enormous voids and large, glazed wall panels that enhance transparency, while visual sightlines within the buildings and across the village green ensure connection.

Materiality is authentic with timber and stone and the colour palette of multiple shades of green is warm and inviting. Public waiting spaces are a part of the internal ‘hospital street’ that flows between the acute and sub-acute buildings, and the waiting areas can accommodate a crowd with groupings of chairs and curved banquette seating. Out of the way nooks have been included as well, for time apart from others, even in the busy Emergency area.

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“The interior is calm and soothing, designed to bring clarity and simplicity to what can be a daunting environment for hospital users. Colour and material palettes reinforce the architectural logic of the building and strengthen its connection to landscape and place, evolving from the idea of bringing the outside in. Public zones are clearly expressed to ease navigation, while each patient care space is paired with a corresponding family zone, articulated through a consistent, warm material palette that supports comfort and connection. Finishes are composed to enhance natural light and landscape, allowing outward views to become the primary visual focus,” elaborates Allison Jessup, Senior Associate and Interior Design Lead, BLP.

While there is always a view to landscaping or the village green throughout the hospital more than 20,000-square-metres of courtyards terraces, wintergardens and green roofs bring the outside in and provide a sense of well-being for everyone.

A standout decorative design feature that makes this hospital a place of welcoming, is a cylindrical artistic installation in a void at the clinical outpatients waiting space. The installation named Welcome to Country – now you see me: seeing the invisible’ is designed by Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung) and Mitch Mahoeny (Boonwurrung/Barkindji) was woven by the Australian Tapestry Workshop. It is perfection in both its enormous size and vibrant colours and its narrative of the Maribyrnong River meandering through organic forms was inspired by the River reed.

At 1.5 billion dollars this project is well worth the financial outlay for the rapidly growing region. The project built by Multiplex was designed during the pandemic and, unbelievably, was delivered on time and on budget.

Patrick Ness, Director Cox Architecture remarks, “Our design approach for the new Footscray Hospital sought to blur the lines between healthcare, wellness and community as a new type of public infrastructure for the people of the Western Suburbs. Using soft forms, transitioning scales and permeable links with the community, the new hospital is a place that someone can visit to not only get well but to live well.”

While Footscray Hospital re-defines healthcare design on every level it also provides something unique for a community. Yes, it’s a place to support health but through the design, families are made to feel welcome in times of stress, staff have amenity to aid their challenging work and there is social cohesion on a large scale. This is social sustainability.

When it comes to the facts and figures of built sustainability, Footscray Hospital is aiming high with a minimum 5 Star Green Star rating, aspiring for 6 Star certification and seeking WELL Gold certification as well.

The architects have also given thought to future building in flexibility wherever possible such to map separation of flows across the site and through key departments. For example, the Emergency Department can rapidly flex up in care modules by separating paths and repurposing accommodation clusters. Similarly, the Wellness clinic cluster can be rapidly repurposed as a community testing facility with a one-way patient flow. Engineering systems are also able to be switched to adapt to caring for a greater proportion of infectious patients.

The Footscray Hospital is not only a triumph for the architects but a design that provides an exemplary model of best practice in healthcare. This is architecture at its finest as it supports people in their place with superb amenity and singular form as it heralds a new design template for the future.

COX Architecture
coxarchitecture.com.au

BLP
blp.com.au

Tract
tract.com.au

Photography
Peter Bennetts