This recent addition to the medical center—which opened in May 2018 and has since been designated as Western Australia’s official children’s hospital—is a research facility focused concentrates on childhood diseases, conditions, and issues. Improvements include larger offices and an enhanced layout for workplace functions.
“Specifically tailored for the activities and interactions of our people, our new workspaces give us the greatest opportunity to do the very best research,” Jonathan Carapetis, Ph.D., the Telethon Kids Institute’s director, said.
The 10,000-square-meter project spans several floors and is comprised of 7,000 square meters of workplace interiors, 2,000 square meters of wet labs, and 1,000 square meters of biomedical working areas which are linked by an entryway and dining rooms. The overarching concept is based on different bodily functions which are alluded to in both literal and abstract forms.
The key principles for the workplace interiors are activity-based working and providing employees with diverse settings for learning, collaborating, and socializing. They also feature working areas that can be expanded or compressed to collaborate in a group setting or undertake focused work, mimicking the cellular activity of division and growth. Quiet zones with acoustically sensitive features have also been installed throughout the floors.
The laboratories were designed in line with the PC2 standard, or a Physical Containment Level 2 Laboratory. This includes a large open plan layout, microscopy rooms, freezer farms, and specialty suites to conduct experiments. The latter of new interiors include more laboratories, four trial suites, and a cryogenics facility.
“The laboratories have been designed to provide an inspiring workplace for researchers with light, open and flexible spaces that are visually connected to the surroundings,” Woods Bagot senior associate Suresh Dhillon, who led the design of the laboratory and research areas, said. “The level of flexibility that has been built into the modular design enables the research spaces to be easily adapted to meet the Institute’s future needs.”