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. The 12-bed facility will accommodate up to three families on site in a residential setting, as they receive family-focused therapy and support for issues such as medication management, dispute resolution, school refusal and challenging behaviour.
The facility will include private rooms with shared living space, which include a kitchen, dining, lounge and laundry, family activity areas, outdoor garden areas and clinical consulting areas.
The centre will be the first in Victoria to provide live-in services for children and their families. Part of the therapy service that the centre will provide will involve observing family dynamics.
The Statewide Child and Family Centre by Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas is designed to have a residential feel.
Kerstin Thompson and Bloxas principal Anthony Clarke said their design emerged from the innovative model of care devised by the clinicians at Austin Health, which will be operating the service.
“The most interesting thing to us about this project was their model of care. It was innovative and, as yet, they didn’t have the typology to fit,” Thompson said. “We saw our role as developing a spatial typology that would support them and what they were wanting to deliver. It was really fascinating to see this synergy with what architecture can do and help them visualize it and apply it through space in ways that met their needs and didn’t feel institutional.”
Creating a residential atsmosphere, and also an environment where children could feel they have instrumentality and choice, as well as breaking down the dichotomous patient-clinical dynamic of the setting was a challenge for the architects. They explored a number of different types of children’s spaces, such as childcare centres, libraries for children, and Maggies Centres which provide support for cancer patients. “We had to pull many different types of programs as reference points for this because we were inventing a type,” Thompson said.
In the Statewide Child and Family Centre by Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas, activity areas for children are separated from therapy focused areas.
The architects also consulted with a group of former patients who gave insights about their lived experiences receiving treatment.
“”There’s been a lot of care involved in the overall planning and consideration for children in this project,” said Anthony Clarke, who is also undertaking PhD research into how architects can create spaces for people with unique neurological and mental conditions.
“A lot of [our ideas] focused on offering children choice, privacy, physical and psychological transparency, autonomy, and a sense of empowerment. The project offers young individuals the ability to self-regulate through a diverse spectrum of highly considered internal and external settings.
“One example is the ability to independently control lighting with dimmers. It seems like a very minor component however it offers a strong, and important sense of personal control.”
The project also separates the therapy-focused areas from other areas where the children might be undertaking other activities. “It was important to appreciate and comprehend the concept of ‘dual purpose’ spaces. Where the children watch movies, or free play for example, are not the same environments where the more formal therapy may take place.” Clarke explains “This assists to reduce any confusion between positive and negative spatial association. In addition to this, the introduction of transition zones was critical, offering the opportunity for individual decision making to occur.”
The Statewide Child and Family Centre by Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas is embedded into its neighbourhood with its landscape.
Thompson added that the landscape also contributes creating a residential feel for the project. The key spaces all have garden spaces “because of the therapeutic possibilities of gardens, the prospect of gardens, and also the sense of relief and not feeling trapped.” The gardens serve as spaces for children to undertake activities in and also as visual outlooks.
The proposed facility responds to key recommendations from Victoria’s royal commission into mental health. Construction is underway and is due to be completed in late 2022.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
