The Westmead Hospital Precinct Masterplan by MAAP is intended to inform strategic decision-making on the future of Australia’s largest and most intensively used concentration of health assets. After four decades of piecemeal redevelopment, the original structure has exhausted its surplus capacity. The 2014 Masterplan ambitiously intends to extend the hospital’s life for another forty years by finding opportunities for current and future expansion, consolidation and flexibility for unpredictable changes in models of care, technology, and patient profiles.
The vision involved rerouting the major diagonal artery through the site and established a flexible orthogonal block structure. Such a layout reduces wasted space and creates a logic for way-finding. It also allows other partners such as universities and corporations to develop distinct lots, and thereby further activate the site and make it ever more relevant as a health and health research precinct.
External amenity is maximised by improving the availability and convenience of car-parking, to improve the visibility and accessibility of entries, to improve way-finding generally, and to improve and take advantage of the natural environment.
The precinct already provides more than 400,000m2 of clinical, research and academic facilities. The masterplan illustrates how the precinct’s capacity can more than double in the next two decades and create 25,000 new jobs. Anticipated uses include bio-medical, residential accommodation and commercial and retail together with new specialist research and academic facilities.
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Sector
Acute Health / Masterplanning
Client
NSW Health Infrastructure & Western Sydney Local Health District
Role
Masterplanner, Architect
Value
AUD$1bil
Status
Masterplan completed 2014