Project Overview

The new Bendigo Hospital is the largest regional hospital development in Victoria. The $AUD 630 million project delivers world-class healthcare facilities and aims to provide a welcoming, holistic and positive environment that promotes well-being.

Project Commissioner

Exemplar Health Consortium

Project Creator

Bates Smart / Silver Thomas Hanley / Oculus

Project Brief

The hospital is an inclusive environment that incorporates community facilities such as an indigenous garden, childcare centre and 128 serviced apartments. Importantly the hospital reduces the need for patients to travel to Melbourne and creates an essential asset for the future healthcare needs of a growing regional population. This significant civic building integrates a holistic framework considering the needs of patients, staff and the community and offering a tranquil and caring environment through the integration of architecture, landscaping, health planning and evidence-based design.

Project Innovation/Need

Taking inspiration from the scale and proportion of Bendigo’s heritage buildings, the design introduces a street-scale rhythm of vertical framing elements to the podium. This establishes a more friendly and human scale to the hospital.

A north-south civic axis provides a clear and welcoming entrance to the hospital, culminating with a triple height internal street. Rather than the building acting as a barrier, this axis creates an important link through the site. A bespoke woven timber ceiling is a focal point in the internal street. The pattern filters daylight providing ever-changing dappled light. The use of timber and the quality of light provides a sense of warmth and helps to increase wellbeing. A strong sculptural form, the IPU is the main civic element of the hospital and is clearly separated from the podium. Designed from the inside out the, the rectilinear forms visually connect to the surrounding context. All internal corridors terminate in a floor-to-ceiling view of the landscape, while rooms have generous uninterrupted views and access to natural light.

The inclusion of three native trees within the hospital entrance enhances the biophilic ethos of the building. While a rooftop garden, visible from inside the mental health ward provides a visual connection to nature.