Plans for the new Bankstown Hospital, which is set to complement the suburb’s existing Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital with a new facility for overnight acute care, are currently on exhibition with the New South Wales government’s major projects planning portal.
The $2 billion proposal includes a 14-storey new hospital building with three inpatient wings, a 10-storey car park, and a separate emergency drop-off area with dedicated parking on a 38,000-square-metre site approximately three kilometres north of the existing hospital.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Western Sydney Prue Car commented, “The new hospital will transform Bankstown with the services, capacity and infrastructure needed for families in this growing area for decades to come.”
Minister for Planning and Public Places Paul Scully added that it “will deliver vital health services to match the growing housing pipeline in south-west Sydney.”
While yet to be finalised, the hospital is expected to include an emergency department, operating theatres, an intensive care unit, surgical and medical services, women’s and children’s services, mental health services, ambulatory care, cancer services and aged care services.
A communique from the NSW government notes that, to date, more than 1,000 community members and staff have been consulted on the proposal, whose architectural design has been led by Architectus and Billard Leece Partnership, with landscape design by Aspect Studios and the project’s connecting with Country approach by Yerrabingin.
According to Architectus’s architectural design statement, the team’s vision has been “to create a hospital that elevates the experience of care, a place that is calm, culturally inclusive, and deeply connected to Country.”
Inspired by First Nations connection to place, the facade design echoes the colours of local geology, native tree canopies and the sky, with an abstracted colour pattern tailored to each elevation.
A green plaza, designed as a shared garden for visitors, patients and the broader community, is planned as the main entrance point into the proposed hospital. Inside, a double-height lobby space is articulated as a “hospital street” with differing gathering spaces for visitors. On the second level, a proposed bridge from the car park also provides an entry point, with visitors arriving via a mezzanine that looks down onto the ground floor below.
The decommissioning of existing buildings and site remediation is currently underway and will continue throughout 2026. In the long term, the masterplan for the project envisions the addition of new health, education and research facilities on the site.
Minister for Health Ryan Park said the government is “continuing valuable consultation with the community and … hardworking health staff every step of the way, to ensure this new hospital reflects their health care needs going into the future.”
Plans for the new hospital building can be accessed on the NSW government website until 7 May.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
