A children's mental health facility in Melbourne designed for a new health care typology

2022-03-29T14:58:00-04:00

Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas have “invented” a new health care typology in their design for a children’s mental health facility in Melbourne’s north. The $7.3 million Statewide Child and Family Centre in Macleod will provide mental health services for children aged up to 11 who have experienced negative or traumatic events.

According to Kerstin Thompson and Bloxas principal Anthony Clarke, their design is based on the innovative care model developed by clinicians at Melbourne’s Austin Health. The main challenge for the architects was creating both a residential atmosphere and environment where children felt they have instrumentality and choice. They also wanted to break down the dichotomous patient-clinical dynamic of the setting. The team, thus, explored a number of different types of children’s spaces, such as childcare centers, children's libraries, and Maggie's Centers, which provide support for cancer patients.

Specific features in this new type of facility include the separation of therapy-focused areas from other spaces reserved for other activities, such as play areas, for the purpose of ridding confusion between positive and negative spatial association. Transition zones were also added, allowing individual decision-making to occur. In addition, garden spaces are present in all of the key spa...

A new museum for one of Australia's most serene artistic escapes

2022-02-05T09:00:00-05:00

The art ecosystem of Australia’s South Coast region got a significant boost over the weekend after the official unveiling of the new Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge for Creative Learning designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects.

The Melbourne-based firm worked with landscape architects Wraight Associates, Craig Burton, and sustainable design engineers Atelier Ten to create a multifaceted arts destination on an important 1,100-hectare (2,718-acre) property located in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales.

Photo by Zan Wimberley

Designed to be a weather-resilient education center as well as an art museum and retreat destination, the entire development consists of a 500-square-meter (5,382-square-foot) museum, paddock-to-plate café, an education center, and lodging for up to 64 people. All this is inspired by the art of landscape painter Arthur Boyd, who, together with his wife Yvonne, gifted the property to the Australian people in 1993.

Photo by Zan Wimberley

The museum is split into ...

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A children's mental health facility in Melbourne designed for a new health care typology

A new museum for one of Australia's most serene artistic escapes