Enabling Works
The Royal Women’s Hospital Enabling Works on the Royal Melbourne Hospital site relocates 14,000m2 of space to allow the Charles Connibere Building to be demolished so that the new Royal Women’s Hospital can be constructed on the RMH site.
Under the project the occupants of the Charles Connibere Building are relocated to two new buildings on the site; the Infill Building and the North Wing Expansion, in addition to numerous refurbishment projects across the site. In total the project provides around 4500 m2 of new building and 7500 m2 of refurbished space, providing new efficiencies and patient and staff amenity.
The Enabling Works project follows an architectural tradition of adding companion buildings to the original Stephenson & Turner designed hospital with their own individual expression. The two new buildings face west and provide a public identity for RMH facing the proposed RWH. The area between the two hospitals is an essential interface between them.
The Infill Building will address a shared public space between the two hospitals and the North Wing Expansion faces onto a new, raised outdoor area.The North Wing Expansion abuts the existing north and west wings of the hospital, providing a larger, more useful floor plate. The ground floor of the North Wing Expansion includes a new library and clinical school adjoining the existing conference centre providing a state of the art education precinct.
The first floor is dedicated to Mental Health, bringing this department into the main block of the hospital. A new outdoor terrace area has been created at first floor level (above the library) creating much needed recreational space on the site.The Infill Building ‘fills in’ the space between the Outpatients Building and the Main Block on the western side: the new receiving kitchen is located in the Basement, adjacent to the proposed loading dock; the ground floor area has been reserved to allow integration with the new RWH building; the first floor extends the ambulatory care precinct; and the second to fifth floors house support offices for various clinical areas.
The refurbishment projects include the relocation of the executive area to the main block, the relocation of the main server room and IT department, new Hospital Medical Officer quarters (which have been dubbed the best in the state!) a new Human Resources department and various other office areas throughout the hospital.
The architectural concepts for refurbished areas are obviously limited by the existing building envelope and in some cases by existing internal walls. Working within this, the attention to the interior layout and the use of natural daylight, materials and colour is an important consideration within the design.
