Architects have called for an end to the “tit for tat” political bickering surrounding the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Last week saw a spate of comments on the designs, as both political sides rushed to win points in the run up to the 2010 state election.
“Design-on-the-run” was getting in the way of good healthcare planning in South Australia, Tim Horton, SA president of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), said. “Design of the built environment is about forward planning to balance a range of competing needs … this takes time,” he said.
Opposition leader Martin Hamilton-Smith unveiled three redevelopment options for the hospital last week, arguing that all of the designs represented a better investment than health minister John Hill’s plans for a brand new hospital. A redevelopment would save up to $900 million on the Rann government’s West End proposal, Hamilton-Smith said.
Hill hit back with the accusation that the redevelopment was a “patch-up job” that lacked details. All three Liberal proposals failed to address where cancer-fighting tools called linear accelerators would be placed in a revamped hospital.
Earlier this week, Hassell’s Ken Maher said that mindless bickering was hindering Adelaide’s chance of becoming a world-class city. There was a “five-to-ten year window” for Adelaide to buck up its design ideas, he told AdelaideNow, and that the city currently lacked the “buzz” factor.
