Cameron Martin, director at Morris Bray Martin Ollmann Architects (MBMO), has over 14 years of international architecture experience, including as director of a 45-person practice in the United Kingdom.

Martin's specialties include health, commercial and industrial projects and is currently working on the Sydney Adventist Hospital.

Architecture & Design spoke to him about why traditional hospital layouts provide a challenge to healthcare design, using BIM and the future of healthcare design in Australia.

What are the main challenges of healthcare design?

The main challenge in efficient and innovative healthcare design is providing ‘healthy buildings’ which enhance both patient and healthcare professionals’ experience in all elements.

Traditional hospitals were rigid in design, often featuring primary staff zones in the middle of the building with little or no access to natural light, attempting, often unsuccessfully, to provide patients access to natural light on the edges of the building. Now we are introducing natural light opportunities, penetrating into buildings by the use of atriums. These atriums can provide secure patient rest areas and rehabilitation areas in some cases.

The Sydney Adventist Hospital, and pictured below. Images courtesy MBMO

Another common challenge is the inclusion techniques needed to facilitate the vast array of functional and clinical requirements that come with designing a health facility. Each of these separate and high-use spaces present design challenges and opportunities in their own right, often with their success in use dominated by how well any one interacts with the adjacency made available to other departments and how this best this works for the health professionals themselves.

Another challenge and one which is of growing relevance in healthcare today is the ability to provide a welcoming and ‘non-clinical’ atmosphere in the healthcare spaces while still adhering to strict infection control guidelines and maintenance regimes.

And last but not least the ability to provide optimal indoor air quality, thermal comfort, noise and stress-free environments to enable quicker healing for the patient and an overall restful and therapeutic, healing environment.

What do you see as an emerging challenge with healthcare design in the future?

To deliver innovative healthcare design within often rigid and inflexible frameworks of regulatory guidelines that dominate the health industry and do not often place patient experience as a priority. Whilst healthcare is clearly driven by the need for rigorous controls, we as designers are challenged to provide spaces that are modern, efficient and cohesive healing environments — places that serve to support health professionals in improving both healing and patient experience which we now know greatly assists recovery rates.

What do you think Australia’s hospitals look like in the future?

Based on current trends, hospitals of the future will be more greatly focused on therapeutic options for patients, with the time spent in hospital minimised as much as possible and with options of rehabilitation and remedy offered within the grounds. Hospitals will no doubt expand their service offerings and providers and the design of health ‘sites’ will need to provide more flexibility, access and service providers whilst ensuring they nestle comfortably within urban zones.

What has been the design aim of the Sydney Adventist Hospital?

The design aim of the redevelopment was to deliver a masterplan that could facilitate growth for the facility over the next 50 years. A key factor in the masterplan was the retention and enhancement of the spirit and guiding principles of the hospital — ‘the SAN experience’. This involved not only clinical space, but a new image and face for the SAN.

How have you fulfilled those aims?

The team has worked very closely over the last three years with iterations of the masterplan and through the involvement of the directors, staff and stakeholders of the hospital have arrived at a solution that meets the requirements and aspirations of the institution. The entire focus of arrival at the SAN, including the current entry to the hospital, has been shifted and reshaped and the establishment of a new ‘hub’ will become the focal point for patients and visitors for entry, passage and social/retail opportunities within the body of the hospital services.

You extensively used BIM on the project. How?

At the Sydney Adventist Hospital we have been able to effectively communicate our ideas to our client through numerous fly-throughs, images and 3D diagrams all generated from the BIM model. We have not need to charge any additional fees for our in-house produced movies and images, which have resulted in our client being informed and involved visually at each vital stage of the project’s progress.

We’ve adopted this as our method ‘communication plan’ on all our projects now. BIM’s successful implementation allows us to deliver our vision in an easy, uncomplicated manner and for the Sydney Adventist Hospital health team who are fully occupied running a 350-bed hospital, it enables them to make informed decisions without having to trawl through 2D drawings that they may not fully understand.

This BIM model has developed throughout the project and currently is being used by the entire team for clash detection and coordination.