The Regional Community Health Hub, known as REACH, is the new "kid on the block" at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds Campus, on the outskirts of Geelong. Surrounded by natural bush, with a lake and wetlands, the campus includes a number of buildings from the 1980s to the present. “We’ve refurbished a number of buildings over the last 10 years. This one represents the new ‘wave’ of architecture,” says architect Stephen Webb, design director at Designinc.
While the landscape was an impetus for Designinc’s new three-level building, the winding approach from Nichol Drive North served as the impetus for creating a gateway-style structure. “REACH is the first building you see as you enter the campus. There had to be a sense of arrival,” says Webb.
To form this ‘gateway’ Designinc conceived the 8000 square metre building in two wings, bridged by an atrium. The wing, closest to the entrance, has been ‘raked’ to create a welcoming gesture. Featuring glass, steel and aluminium-blades to diffuse sunlight, this facade is broken up by a timber-clad theatre and a dramatic staircase, framed by two layers of toughened glass. “We wanted to express elements within the building, and the stairs are pivotal to the design, both strengthening connectivity and reducing the emphasis on using lifts,” says Webb.
The front wing predominantly contains the staff offices and breakout areas. While the other wing, rectilinear in form, contains the academic and research laboratories. This wing features recycled timber for sun shading. And bridging the two is a dramatic atrium, complete with breakout spaces and offices. “We wanted the complex to feel like a community for students and staff. It was also important to provide a scheme that would encourage professions, such as doctors and optometrists to work in rural environments,” says Webb.
The atrium brings people together both workwise and socially. It also offers those using the spaces an opportunity to catch up informally, either on the staircase, or in one of the many nooks and enclaves provided. Some of the features, such as the irregular-shaped podium on ground level in the atrium, have dual functions. With its slatted surface, the unit allows cool air into the building, while the hot air is vented through panels in the glass sawtooth ceiling. “We’re recognised for our ‘green’ buildings. It’s an important part of our signature and design philosophy,” says Webb.
Designinc’s REACH also draws on the latest technology. The lecture theatre, for example, which ‘pierces’ the raked wing, has been thoughtfully conceived as both a lecture space, and for informal tutorials. Organised in seating rows of two for each of the stepped levels, students can easily turn their chairs and converse with those behind. And when the theatre is required to perform another role, sliding walls retract to increase the floor area.
For Designinc, the challenge came from creating both a functional brief, as well as providing learning spaces that would engage students from a variety of medical professions, from science and technology, through to traditional medicine. “We could have simply provided rooms off a main corridor. The negative spaces [interstitial spaces off the atrium] are as important as the laboratories and teaching spaces,” says Webb, who was as mindful in delivering light-filled open plan workspaces for staff. “We deliberately located the workstation adjacent to the windows, giving maximum sunlight to as many staff as possible.”
