HOSPITAL CASE STUDIES

1. ROYAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL, MELBOURNE Architects: Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart
Location: 50 Flemington Road, Parkville Victoria 3052,
Melbourne, Australia

The building’s formal arrangement, as well the

internal and external spatial experiences, has
been assembled to promote a restorative and
healing environment for children and their
families. The resulting architectonic language
has been directly informed by the Royal Park
setting, a park with a character much like a
typical slice of Victorian bushland.
Special attention was paid to the natural
textures, forms and colours of the park and how
this could directly inform the material
expression of the building. A detailed study
resulted which indicates how the built
environment infused with the experience of This aquarium at
nature can speak to children and help provide a the Royal
Children’s
therapeutic hopeful backdrop for those visiting
Hospital in
the hospital. Melbourne helps
re-frame
hospitals as
exciting hubs of
activity with
things to do and
friends to meet.

ROYAL CHILDREN'S
HOSPITAL,
MELBOURNE:
HOSPITAL, OR ART
GALLERY?

Use of sculptures, use

of vivid colours and
wallscapes to change
The north orientation The building has been split into the perception of
breaks away from the campus masterplan with a children about a
city grid and turns central street joining major hospital space.
instead to the park new public gardens to the
enabling the collection north and southwest.
of buildings light-filled
landscaped gardens
around their full
perimeter, avoiding a
‘front and back’
portrayal and enhancing
the connection between
child and park.

The Inpatient Building

is designed in a star
shape, connecting the
rooms to the park.
More than 80 per cent At the heart is the six storey ‘Main
of the rooms have Street’ which links the elements
park views, others of the Hospital together through a
look into courtyards. naturally lit public thoroughfare
Specially designed with expansive views of the
glass sunshades on the parkland beyond. The Main Street
Hospital’s exterior features a two- storey coral reef
allow activity in the aquarium, large-scale artworks,
grounds below to be and a range of places to eat and
viewed from the meet with family, colleagues or
patient’s bed. friends.
https://www.detail-online.com/article/nature-inspired-design-the-royal-
childrens-hospital-in-melbourne-16520/
 WINNIE PALMER HOSPITAL, ORLANDO
When Orlando’s Arnold
Palmer Hospital began plans
to create a new 273-bed, 11-
story hospital across the street
from its existing facility, which
was bursting at the seams in
terms of capacity, a massive
planning process began.

A traditional hospital layout has patient

rooms on two linear hallways with exterior
windows. Supply rooms are in interior
corridors. This layout is called a racetrack
design. According to studies, this causes
the nurses to waste a lot of time on
walking the distance.

The new hospital’s unique, circular pod design provides a maximally efficient layout in all areas of the
hospital, creating a patient-centered environment. Servicescape design features include a serene
environment created through the use of warm colors, private rooms with pull-down Murphy beds for
family members, 14-foot ceilings, and natural lighting with oversized windows in patient rooms. But these
radical new features did not come easily. “This pod concept with a central nursing area and pie-shaped
rooms resulted from over 1,000 planning meetings of 35 user groups, extensive motion and time studies,
and computer simulations of the daily movements of nurses”.

In a traditional linear hospital layout, called the racetrack design, patient rooms line long hallways, and a
nurse might walk 2.7 miles per day serving patient needs at Arnold Palmer. “Some nurses spent 30% of
their time simply walking. With the nursing shortage and the high cost of health care professionals,
efficiency is a major concern,” added Swanson. With the nursing station in the center of 10- or 12-bed
circular pods, no patient room is more than 14 feet from a station. The time savings are in the 20% range.

To create a functional working space, a vertical design was chosen. This feature offers three main nursing
unit towers clustered around a central core and elevator shaft. It is a break from the traditional “racetrack”
layouts, which require staff members to cover long distances. On each floor, nursing units radiate from the
core in a “cloverleaf pod” arrangement. This improves observation and patient-to-staff proximity. The
efficiency of this solution cuts down on hallway space and allows an impressive 78% of the building's total
space to be dedicated to actual departmental use.
At the core of this new hospital are its healing environment elements. Because the environment can have a
dramatic impact on the road to recovery, this distinctive design incorporates a sense of serenity
throughout with the use of soft, calming colors and tones.