St Leonards Clinic, NSW

St Leonards Clinic is a private 7 storey mental health clinic designed to replace the client’s former 50 year old building.  The brief for the 112 single bedroom clinic aimed to provide a hotel like patient and carer experience. A neutral colour palette of earthy tones creates a warm interior environment with a choice of specialist and recreational therapy settings. 24 private Consulting Suites are co-located with the main clinic, with a dedicated street level entry. Parking is provided on two basement levels with secure parking, guest parking, back of house facilities and a discreet patient transfer zone. The facility provides a variety of guest focused services which are central to the client’s ethos for delivering exceptional, high quality and specialist care. The unique facilities include a restaurant style dining room, day spa, art centre, activity room, gymnasium, cafe and demonstration cooking kitchen. In all instances the specialist spaces blend indoor and outdoor spaces together with terraces, sky gardens and balconies, all with integrated landscape features.    STH took the client’s brief to provide a place of recovery and wellness as inspiration to create a holistic response with both the architecture and interior design. The building mass is articulated with balconies, views and outlook from the building.  Shadows from balcony screening breathe life onto the façade with shadows playing on form whilst creating interest and appeal from the street. Limited external spaces were enlivened with lush green plantings. STH wove a leaf motif into the façade to each of the full height balconies, giving a subtle pattern to the mesh and casting interesting, delicate shadows within the balcony spaces. This pattern is repeated within the building as a motif on internal glazed screens. Timber look finishes and natural toned tiles were used extensively to enhance the natural interior emphasis.     PROJECT SIZE: 8,900 m2 STATUS: Completed 2018 CLIENT: Ramsay Health PHOTOGRAPHY: Tyrone Branigan