The South Australia government has released concept designs for a new $1.95 billion Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.
Designed by Woods Bagot with Bates Smart, Jacobs and UK practice BDP, the hospital will be co-located with Royal Adelaide Hospital and Adelaide Biomed City on Port Road in the central city.
The co-location will “will maximize the potential” of both hospitals, said Woods Bagot associate principal Edwina Bennett.
The new Women’s and Children’s hospital will have 500 treatment spaces, 170 outpatient consultation rooms, 14 women’s assessment service treatment spaces and two air bridge links that will provide direct access to the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit and helipad.
The co-location of the hospital will facilitate the transition of adolescents to adult services.
The proposed new Women’s and Children’s Hospital by Woods Bagot with Bates Smart, Jacobs and UK practice BDP.
Image: courtesy Woods Bagot
The new hospital will also have improved mental health care facilities and enhanced education, training and research capacities with its proximity to Adelaide Biomed City.
Another bridge over the rail line will allow children and their families to access the Adelaide Park Lands.
“For children, women and their families visiting and spending time at the hospital this offers both a place to play as well as supporting recovery and recuperation,” said Matthew Holmes, global solutions director of health infrastructure at Jacobs.
“We have been particularly mindful to maximize the facility’s connection to Country to provide a comfortable and unique health care setting for all users.”
The architects say the design responds to the hospital’s multi-faceted role as a workplace, sanctuary, assembly point, “accidental playground,” and landmark, and have drawn on the design team’s collective experience in a range of sectors to create an integrated health campus.
The proposed new Women’s and Children’s Hospital by Woods Bagot with Bates Smart, Jacobs and UK practice BDP.
Image: courtesy Woods Bagot
“From the outset, collaboration and innovation have driven our approach to this significant project,” says Bennett. “We’re here as a team rethinking the normal, to deliver a place dedicated to more than health alone.”
The new Women’s and Children’s Hospital will be Australia’s first to use 100 percent electricity for all servies, including heating, hot water and kitchen functions, which will save 2,178 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
South Australian energy minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan the government is committed to a 100 percent renewable electricity grid by 2030, which will make the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital the most sustainable hospital in the country.
““The WCH has been delivering exceptional care to millions of South Australians for more than 140 years and now it will have the facilities to match,” premier Steven Marshall said.
