Ulladulla Health One

Who:

NSW Health – Illawarra and Shoalhaven Local Health District

Where:

Ulladulla, NSW

What:

Health One is a concept created by Health Infrastructure NSW to combine Commonwealth-funded general practice and State-funded primary and community health care services. Developed by the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Network, Ulladulla Health One provides general/specialist consultation spaces and dental surgery rooms to the town of Ulladullah and the surrounding district.

The design challenges for this project included a site with two street frontages, which led to a specific architectural response: address each street frontage differently but maintain a connection. The resulting design sees the front of house celebrating public spaces. All elements – partially exposed brickwork of the basement, full height glazing, cantilevered sections of the ground floor – work together to give a sense of openness, and an outlook to the harbour, a focal point of life for this seaside town. Vertical aluminium screens are arrayed along the full length of the west facing street. The result is privacy for consultation rooms and a rhythm that is terminated by the harbour facing hoods and blade walls.

These ideas of rhythm and contrasting geometry continue internally to the reception area. Here you will find a number of features, including timber battens that fold from the ceiling down a bulkhead. All of this is set out to align with the harbour facing windows that connect the inside and outside elements of this building.

Energy efficiency is ensured through the use of double glazed elements, adjustable rack arm aluminium blinds as shading devices, roof photo voltaic cells and high light windows that provide cross ventilation.

Construction of Ulladulla Health One commenced mid-2019, and was completed (on time! despite the Covid-19 epidemic!) by October 2020. It was commissioned shortly after and is now an integral part of this seaside community.