The Kinghorn Cancer Centre

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Featured products in this project 4

181 Neos office chair/Neos cantilever chair

The Kinghorn Cancer Centre

Firm

Type

Government + Health › Medical Facility

YEAR

2012

SIZE

1,000,000 +

THE KINGHORN CANCER CENTRE, AUSTRALIA “The vision is to create a facility of international standing and world’s best practice by recruiting the highest quality clinicians, clinical researchers and biomedical scientists. The outcome of the research is to improve patient outcomes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.” (Functional Brief; The Kinghorn Cancer Centre)The design of The Kinghorn Cancer Centre offers an opportunity to make a unique place in the “translational” research landscape so that the vision is not just articulated in the building but the vision is the building. To explain, a “translational landscape” in the research and medical field is a landscape where, rather than working in isolation, laboratories and clinicians work collaboratively under the same roof, by sharing and exchanging information to produce better and quicker results.In order to achieve innovative research and clinical workplaces a process of integrated thinking, teamwork and socialized design is required. The role of the architect in this process is to facilitate a design solution informed by these integration imperatives. These are deduced by understanding the research and cultural aspirations of the client and by an understanding, not just of the functional fundamentals, but of the embedding of the client values and objectives.The usual domain of the architect can often be the design of just “space”: our contention is that the design of this new workplace is the synthesis of “people, process and place” leading to a holistic design solution. In simple terms this means a building that is inclusive of all these factors and one that is derived from understanding, clarity, logic and function imbued with humanity and ultimately becomes a joyful, respectful and memorable human experience. For the patient experience, principles involving the human spirit and human comfort were important to the choice and expression of materials, determining, for example that timber is a material that makes people feel comforted and inclusive as distinct from typical health institution vinyl or ceiling tiles that make people feel they are in a functional process oriented environment. Equally shape, volume and visual tactility are seen to contribute to a sense of wellbeing. The design aspiration of the Kinghorn Cancer Centre is to encourage physical and intellectual interaction between research and clinical staff and of most importance, to patients to provide the opportunity for new ideas and thoughts to be exchanged and formulated. These interactions may come about through chance meetings on the way to shared meeting rooms, common tea-stations and kitchenetttes or simply, whilst crossing a bridge over the atrium on the way to the toilet!....conversations and chance meetings leading to groundbreaking discoveries!