Design Mag Vol 3

design

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Sole use of the glossy blue bricks may have been visually

overwhelming. However they came into their own as part

of a mottled pattern when teamed with more

conventional bricks in blacks, browns and greys.

So what was the factor used as the design variable for the

brickwork patterning? “We had a bit of a play on the

roofs,” says Khaled.“As you walk around the buildings you

can appreciate how we shaped the roofs.They are your

normal hip roof but we did a bit more pushing and

shoving to bring natural light into the centre of the

building.And we played on that in the walling.”

Using Rhino 3D modelling software, the designers drew

deviation lines that essentially followed the roof lines

above each wall.“In effect it’s a mirror of what the roof

does above. In some cases where it was an end of a wall,

that’s where the concentration of blue bricks was intense

on one side and started vanishing towards the end.”

The blue is at its most prominent at the entrance and all

but disappears at back-of-house areas.“We wanted the

blue bricks where we could see them at the entry sides

and the back where patients are.The lines follow the roof

in most cases and sometimes just disappear when they

need to at the end of a wall.”

While the software indicated how many Smashing Blue

bricks were needed in a section of walling and the line

their placement was to follow, the final creative control

was left to the bricklayer.Although it would have been

possible to detail every brick placement, this solution was

more practical and added another creative dimension.

The design makes further use of brickwork’s modularity to

create hit-and-miss (or perforated) walling which allows

light penetration and ventilation while maintaining

privacy.A section of hit-and-miss features in the southern

wall separating the two residential pods. It allows light into

the maintenance-access courtyard and the adjacent

glass link.

Another hit-and-miss wall flanks the staff courtyard.“We

wanted to give it some privacy but not kill it from the

ventilation and light point-of-view and to maintain a soft

link with the building’s geometry,” Khaled explains.

After an expenditure of $11.6 million, the Woy Woy

Rehabilitation Unit opened in mid-2013 to the acclaim of

local residents who love their town despite its odd name.

Spike Milligan once mused that if the name comes from

the local indigenous words meaning ‘deep water’ then

“which Woy means ‘deep’ and which Woy means ‘water’?

It makes you think.”

You can’t help but believe that the zany and “random”

wall patterns of the new Rehabilitation Unit would have

appealed to an unconventional thinker like Spike Milligan.

The Unit, designed by Woods Bagot, comprises three

buildings that are keyed into the rear of the existing

hospital but are operationally separate. Sited within a

parkland environment, the buildings or “pods” are

grouped in an inverted L-shape around a car park.The

two pods to the east are residential, while the upper

section of the western pod houses clinical facilities,

dining and lounge rooms, gymnasium and nursing

functions.The entrance is located at the link between

the residential pods and the western pod.The lower

section contains ancillary services for the entire campus

such as linen, mechanical services and stores.

The internal design of any health care facility is a matter

of striking a balance between patient needs and

operational efficiency, and well beyond the scope of this

article. Health care building projects, especially those

funded by the public purse, are not known for their lavish

budgets. So how did the exterior of this small regional

facility come to have such an eye-catching

appearance?

“Health projects come under a really tight budget,” says

Woods Bagot associate Mohammed Khaled,“and you

have to start thinking of creative ways of making the

buildings more interesting.” His solution was to use the

modularity inherent in brickwork to create a series of

seemingly-random pixellated patterns.The factor that

varies this patterning is a little unusual and will be

revealed later.

Why brick is a simpler matter:“Conceptually we wanted

to have a building that was on a scale sympathetic to

the surroundings. So obviously this influenced the height,

roof forms and the choice of walling material, namely

brick.”

The dominant brick is Austral Bricks Burlesque, a

fully-glazed clay masonry unit in Smashing Blue, an

obvious colour choice for a coastal location.