PLACEnews April 2010 Issue 6
The Making of a Health Precinct
A serendipitous decision by the Western Australian government to review Perth’s major hospitals acted as a catalyst for the Midland Redevelopment Authority’s (MRA’s) pursuit of a new health precinct for Midland. The presentation of a convincing business case resulted in a WA State Government decision to establish a 400 bed hospital at Midland’s former railway workshops.
With the commitment for a hospital on-site by 2015 achieved, the focus is now on creating an extensive health precinct and attracting complementary health services.
“We have a very clear vision for creating a state-of-the-art health precinct within a vibrant mixed-use zone at the workshops”, MRA Director of Planning, Annelise Safstrom explains.
The most recent addition to the health precinct is a Super GP Clinic, one of just three allocated to WA via the Australian Government’s Super Clinics Programme.
“The announcement of the Super Clinics programme created a wonderful opportunity to adapt one of our heritage-listed railway workshops, to house the clinic. This will be predominantly built as a free standing building inside the heritage shell. An extremely modern extension then emerges from the eastern side of the workshop to give the clinic a strong street presence and interface with the new hospital directly over the road”, Annelise said.
Tight Super Clinics programme timelines meant that the MRA and clinic operator worked collaboratively to achieve a design that was medically functional whilst also respecting the original building form. At the MRA’s suggestion, the building’s heritage conservation plan and clinic architectural designs were completed in parallel and the clinic operators engaged a heritage architect who soon became the principal architect for the clinic.
Given the scale and heritage significance of the clinic, the State Government’s Architect was also brought into the project to provide independent advice.
Once built, the clinic will read visually as two separate two-storey buildings within the heritage shell. Each separated by an east-west arcade, and linked at the upper storey level by two pedestrian bridges. One of the clinic buildings will accommodate consulting and theatre rooms, endoscopy, family rooms, waiting and training areas. Whilst the other will house pathology, physiotherapy, radiology, and pharmacy functions.
“Our vision of a vibrant health precinct is rapidly becoming a reality. As place makers, we are proud of what we’ve achieved to date and often ponder what we’ve started”, Annelise concluded.
Conceptual internal view of the adaptive re-use of a former railway workshop to create the Midland Super GP Clinic
