Canberra hospital building opens, featuring a wellbeing-oriented design

Australia's first all-electric hospital building, designed by BVN, opened on 17 August.

Canberra Hospital's new Critical Services Building (CSB) - also known as Building 5 - is a nine-storey structure that is powered by 100 percent renewable energy. As a result, its emissions impact is reduced by approximately 1,886 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

The 44,000 square metre building is linked to the existing hospital campus through a double-height welcome hall, which also serves as the hospital's new primary reception area. The building houses a new emergency department, intensive care unit, operating theatres, day surgery with expanded recovery areas, cardiac care unit, and inpatient wards.

The design prioritises families as a key user group of the hospital. The welcome hall, collaboratively designed with the community, aims to create an inclusive space by incorporating outdoor terraces and courtyards for alternate, greener waiting areas. The intensive care facility also includes two sheltered terraces, both of which have been specifically designed to support medical equipment. This setup enables patients and their families to experience outdoor environs while visiting and receiving care.

BVN principal Julian Ashton said the major expansion of Canberra Hospital will "unite healthcare and community in an environmentally-friendly wellbeing-oriented campus."

"Our approach to this project included a strong focus on engaging with the local community to really understand how the new facilities would be used, and how the spaces could bring additional value to the people who use them," Ashton said.

"The introduction of gathering spaces such as the welcome hall are examples of areas within the hospital that evolved through this process, offering something fundamentally different to the status quo in hospital design."

The ACT Minister for Health, Rachel Stephen-Smith, highlighted that the opening of the CSB is a huge milestone for the territory's public health system as it is the largest healthcare infrastructure project undertaken by the ACT government to date.

"It will help to meet the growing health needs of our city, attract health workers to the ACT, and provide staff, patients and families with a light and pleasant environment to work and heal."