The recently completed Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, in Brisbane, Australia, is Queensland’s largest specialist children’s hospital, spanning 115,000 sqm. The hospital brings together the staff and services of two surrounding hospitals, into a single multi-purposed facility. The hospital will also act as a hub for a state-wide network of paediatric services, providing assistance to regional health facilities.
As a joint venture between architectural practices Conrad Gargett and Lyons, the design of the hospital is based around the concept of a “living tree”, resembling a network of trunks, branches and leaves, providing internal spaces with an ordered hierarchy.
With the architect’s intent considered, Dotdash has designed and integrated a wayfinding strategy which includes a collection of signage and environmental graphics to connect these spaces, and provide a cohesive system of navigation throughout complex external environments and internal spaces.
As a component of the strategy, the architecture itself was reinterpreted as a wayfinding device. The incorporation of visual navigation cues such as areas of high contrast colour applied to walls and floors, highlight key decision points such as lift foyers and entrances. Colour provides further level identification within the hospital, with each floor allocated a single colour theme throughout.
The internal directory signage takes the form of sculptural free-standing numbers, which act as landmarks and greet visitors on arrival. These sign types display directory maps which further utilise bold colour coding as a tool in creating an intuitive wayfinding journey.
Our family of wayfinding components work in unity to distract from the nature of the hospital environment by expressing a bold, vibrant aesthetic. Each component aims to lighten the experience of the facility to it's younger visitors.
Client Congrad Gargett Lyons
Project Team Domenic Nastasi, Heath Pedrola, Ida Molander, Erin Stromgren, Juri Yamamura & Keith Sullivan
Photography Dianna Snape
