News — August 15, 2024
Delivering Australia's first all-electric hospital
The opening of Canberra Hospital’s new Critical Services Building (CSB) on Saturday 17 August marked an important day for Canberrans, ACT healthcare and the environment.
Delivered with construction partner Multiplex, the CSB ushers in a new era as Australia’s first all-electric hospital building. Powered by 100% renewable energy, its emissions impact is reduced by approximately 1,886 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (the equivalent of taking 780 cars from Canberra's roads every year).
At 44,000sqm, the new nine-storey building — also known as Building 5 — is a major upgrade and extension to the hospital. It houses the new Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, operating theatres, day surgery, expanded recovery areas, cardiac care unit and inpatient wards.
Find out more about the key features of Canberra Hospital’s new CSB, including its increased capacity and family-focused design as well as the sustainable initiatives that are implemented embedded throughout the building and its construction.
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.
The introduction of gathering spaces like the wellness hall and the welcome hall are examples of areas within the hospital that evolved and contribute to the expansion of Canberra Hospital, offering something fundamentally different to the status quo in hospital design
Principal, Julian Ashton.
Co-curated with Creative Road, site specific works by locally-based artists contribute to the Critical Services Building's identity.
Taking line drawing to three dimensions, Hannah Quinlivan's sculptural work spans the Gallery Walk connecting the Welcome Hall with the Critical Services Building.
An environment of healing and connection
The Critical Services Building links into the existing campus via a generous double height Welcome Hall that functions as the hospital’s new main reception. This engaging hub is an inclusive space that was co-designed with the community. Its outdoor terraces and courtyards serve as family and visitor waiting areas, providing verdant areas of relief and respite for all frequenting the hospital. The intensive care facility features two sheltered terraces designed and equipped to support medical equipment, allowing patients and families to benefit from outdoor environs while visiting and receiving care.
Enhancing the public spaces in and around the CSB, artworks by locally-based artists have been co-curated with Creative Road consultants. Hannah Quinlivan, Kate Vassallo and Musonga Mbogo celebrate Canberra, its surroundings and people in their site specific commissions while the expansive works of Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi artist Lynnice Church and Ngunnawal artist Bradley Mapiva Brown honour First Nations culture and Country.
Trucks are gone… Clinicians in… We're moving in, delivering / Nurses are excited… and everyone’s invited… into Building 5.
Canberra Health Services team (to the tune of Stayin' Alive).
Moving in
Handing over a building to a client is always a special moment. We love how excited Canberra Health Services is to take over the recently completed Building 5. They have shared a helpful video to welcome staff, patients and visitors to their newly designed and beautifully detailed spaces.
The opening of the Critical Services Building is a huge milestone for the ACT public health system and our entire community. 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.
ACT Minister for Health, Rachel Stephen-Smith.
Canberra Hospital Expansion is the largest healthcare infrastructure project undertaken by the ACT Government to date, supporting the ACT’s growing health needs now and into the future.
Stay tuned for more on this important sustainable healthcare development.
