Stage 2 of the Blacktown Mount Druitt Hospital development in Sydney promises to inject even more colour into the health precinct.
Just weeks after the completion of the Stage 1 Clinical Services Building (CSB) by Sinclair Knight Merz (now Jacobs), Jacobs have submitted a development proposal for a new nine-storey Acute Services Building (ASB) containing a new emergency department, operating theatres, intensive care unit, birthing / special care nursery and new maternity and paediatric beds.
As was the case with the CSB, a key feature of ASB’s façade design is the coloured glass fins and the new building will continue most of the same materiality and playfulness developed for the Stage 1.
Black aluminium cladding will be the base of the building and white aluminium ‘ribbons’ will tie the old and new buildings together. The windows and glass fins on the façade between the towers are full floor to ceiling height wherever possible to maximise the apparent proportion of the ‘open’ glazing band to the ‘closed’ spandrel.
Stage 2 Acute Services Building (ASB)
Stage 1 Clinical Services Building (CSB). Image: Robertson Facade Systems
The proposed designs for Stage 2 suggest a rectangular deep plan podium topped with a U-shaped form extending up to Level 8
The interior of Stage 2 Acute Services Building (ASB)
Additionally, a number of smaller scale ‘interventions’ in coloured glass will provide detail to the west façade of the building which will be prominent to the public approaching the hospital.
Similar to Stage 1 CSB, the ASB design will continue to build a distinct identity for the hospital and enhance its relationship with the community. Together the ASB, the CSB and the existing buildings will aim to create a new hospital of varying character, rather than homogeneity.
The work for Stage 2 is, subject to approval, expected to commence in January 2017.
