STARS - a healing environment in Queensland — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Hassell’s recently completed Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS) won two 2021 Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards, both the National and Queensland Award for Health and Education Landscape.

The project forms part of the redevelopment of Herston Quarter, the Hassell-designed health and wellbeing precinct overlooking Victoria Park in Brisbane, two kilometres north of the CBD.

A connected healing environment with 182 patient beds, 100 specialist rehabilitation beds and 56 surgical inpatient beds across nine storeys, “STARS is set to challenge what we expect from health facilities and change the way people recover from serious treatment, with a design that reflects the latest insights into better long-term care.”

STARS sets out to challenge how we think about hospitals and what we should expect from health campuses.

STARS’ bright and welcoming environment responds to the known benefits of exposure to natural light and green spaces. A landscaped courtyard sits at the heart of the building, with every part of the building designed to have a connection to nature.

Pedestrian thoroughfares running through the buildings offer direct access to landscaped outdoor areas, and users can orient themselves by their position in relation to the courtyard.

Therapy gyms and recovery areas are integrated with the rehab beds and positioned along the Herston Road facade in order to maximise views and light, thus supporting patients through their rehabilitation. Inpatient wards on higher floors have direct access to landscaped outdoor decks.

The AILA jury described STARS as a, “brave and significant landscape.

“STARS is a working model that challenges and influences how we think about hospitals and what we should expect from health campuses,” say the designers.

A staircase integrated within the landscape, nicknamed the Spanish Steps, leads from street level to the area’s heritage core across a level change of around 25 metres.

The facility has 182 patient beds, 100 specialist rehabilitation beds and 56 surgical inpatient beds across nine storeys,

Hassell held over 250 user consultation meetings with consumers, academics, clinical, allied health and support services, engineering teams, and facility and construction management during the design process.

The AILA jury described STARS as a, “brave and significant landscape. Lush and intense planting fills the spaces generously, supporting therapeutic principles and biophilic design by relieving the sense for patients and medical workers…An exemplary project, the landscape is so deeply integrated with the hardscapes of the built environment that the result is simultaneously dramatic and sensitive.”