Abstract

The Ministry of Health in New Zealand commissioned a new facility on behalf of the West Coast District Health Board. The facility had to be rich in services, as local residents frequently lose access to the tertiary hospital on the other side of the alps during winter.

The facility integrated space for GPs and clinics, as well as general and specialist services, and a dental suite – all designed to be highly flexible, with boundary areas between departments able to be easily reconfigured. The building lifespan was specified as 50 years, which created challenges in the architectural shell design, detailing, material selection, and construction. Adding to the difficulty was the facility’s location, less than 400m from the ocean, and the fact it needed to be constructed to Importance Level 4 (IL4), which stipulates the facility has to be fully operational immediately after a 1:500-year earthquake. This required innovative design solutions for the architecture movement joints, structural design, and services reticulation. 

Solution: This talk will report from three perspectives on:

1. Challenges with the existing facility and services, discussing the process of engaging with clinical staff across multiple sites and key stakeholders in the community, including local iwi, to ensure an inclusive and culturally appropriate design brief.
2. Design solutions that meet the design brief and include planning solutions, seismic movement design, and material selections to achieve the required earthquake resiliency and weather tightness requirements. The place-based design process of the building exterior and grounds, as part of the larger indigenous population context, will also be explored. 
3. The services design, focusing on resilience to allow for emergency post-event triage care. Sustainability will also be discussed in the context of both environmental factors and patient wellbeing.