Image Credit : Sketches and Visualisations by Breathe
Project Overview
The Melbourne Recovery Centre is a cancer treatment, research and recovery centre. The entire building is designed as a biophilic, carbon sequester. The concept is based on the idea of doing no harm: no harm to the patient, no harm to the staff that dedicate themselves to a life of service and no harm to the planet.
Project Commissioner
Client wishes to remain anonymous
Project Creator
Team
Jeremy McLeod, Ali Galbraith, Marcella Palma, Renee Eleni
Project Brief
To “do no harm”. The concept that guides the design of The Melbourne Recovery Centre. It is a building that serves to protect. To protect the patient, to protect its staff & families, to protect the community, and importantly to protect the planet. Responding to its site, the protective façade is regrown from the recycled material of its heritage, a five storey, monumental, hit & miss brick screen. The brick skin is designed to protect the interior, a safe space to regrow and to heal.
Carefully dappled light radiates through the skin into the internal spaces beyond, while climbing plants are sewn through its openings. The skin simultaneously talks of protection and regeneration.
Built from CLT timber, the interior guides the way to a sustainable future, with materials kept as close to their natural state as possible. Intersecting pathways create opportunities for chance encounters, while providing meandering paths for occupants to bathe in the overflowing greenery. A space to regrow.
At the core of the project, standing proud from ground to roof, is a light filled, green atrium. The atrium is the spine that guides the way to a rooftop garden, alive with the seasons. A space to heal. The building is designed to be carbon neutral in construction and operation. It is a place about stillness, calmness, treatment, recovery, restoration and regeneration.
It is a place to protect, to regrow and to heal.
Project Innovation/Need
The Melbourne Recovery Centre is carbon neutral in construction and operations. The entire building is designed as a biophilic, carbon sequester. It is a place about stillness, calmness, treatment, recovery, restoration and regeneration. It is a place that is designed to protect, to regenerate, and to heal.
A healing atrium is carved into the centre of the space. It provides access to light, to nature and to the cycle of life. Each floor is connected by pathways that cross through the central atrium. It provides opportunity for chance encounters and a connection to light and nature for the staff and the patients.
A sea of vegetation and plants sends a clear message of re-birth, regeneration, and regrowth. A place to heal.
Design Challenge
The Melbourne Recovery Centre was a design competition for a medical institution. We were given a very rigorous brief and asked to design a concept and design which met that brief. We had to determine the right materials, look at the right light and spaces with sustainability and biophilic design at the core to ultimately create a place for people to heal.
Sustainability
The Melbourne Recovery Centre is designed to achieve a minimum of 8+ NAtHERS
The protective skin is constructed from recycled brick reclaimed from the building that stood on the site. With biophilic design guiding the project, CLT will be read as both structure and soffit, column and wall. An atrium is carved into the centre of the space, providing access to light and ventilation.
100% fossil fuel free embedded energy network and solar panels. The building is designed to be fossil fuel free in operations.
Built from CLT timber, the interior guides the way to a sustainable future, with materials kept as close to their natural state as possible eliminating superfluous finishes. Bricks are recycled from the building that stood on the site.
Rain water collection for irrigation and for public toilet flushing.
The entire building is designed as a biophilic, carbon sequester. To mitigate heat island effect the structure is built from CLT, surrounded by a sea of vegetation and plants sending a clear message of re-birth, regeneration, and regrowth. The entry is designed as a meandering path through indigenous planting. Windows are high quality timber, double glazed to assist with heating and cooling.
We acknowledge the Boon Wurrung people as the traditional owners of the lands and waters on which this site exists. We pay our respects to their continued connection to country.
Tags
Architecture - Proposed
This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow. The project can be a concept, tender or personal project, i.e. proposed space.
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