Westmead’s $659m Hospital is NSW’s Biggest Paediatric Build in 25 Years

A 14-storey children’s hospital building has opened at Westmead, adding acute clinical capacity to one of Australia’s largest health precincts while making the case for design as a medical instrument. Billard Leece Partnership (BLP) designed the Wattle Building for Health Infrastructure and Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, as part of Westmead’s $659-million Stage 2 redevelopment. The 57,000sq m building consolidates theatres, intensive care, oncology, burns, cardiology, radiology and pharmacy services closer together on a campus caring for children from across NSW. But its most instructive work sits between the treatment rooms. ▲ A landscaped forecourt leads into the Wattle Building, where BLP’s river-inspired design shapes the entry and facade. Whimsical Australian animals follow children across ceilings as they move through the hospital in beds and treatment chairs. Intentionally designed play spaces with natural light and outdoor access include medical gases, so children on oxygen can still leave their rooms. These aren’t cute extras. They translate research around recovery, family-centred care, positive distraction, privacy, natural light and orientation into built form for children and families facing some of their hardest days. ▲ KidsWay turns a long internal route into part of the care experience, with curved forms, colour and child-scale nooks. A campus-scale investment Westmead forms part of the largest investment in paediatric health in NSW in 25 years, alongside the new Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick and the Minderoo Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre , which opened to patients late last year. The two projects were developed in dialogue rather than designed as replicas of each other. Randwick integrates clinical care, research and education around Australia’s first purpose-built comprehensive cancer centre for children and young people. ▲ A light-filled play room gives children space away from the ward while keeping clinical support close. Westmead has a different task: acute and complex care, statewide services, Western Sydney growth and a campus embedded in one of the world’s largest health, research, education and training precincts. Similar shifts are under way nationally. New hospitals in Footscray , Bundaberg and Adelaide are moving health briefs toward precinct planning, family experience and access to nature. BLP and COX are among the practices shaping this pipeline. For BLP principal and managing director Tara Veldman, the opening points to a wider shift in health infrastructure. “This is not simply a new hospital building. It is part of a wider rethinking of paediatric environments in NSW, where design is understood as a critical contributor to wellbeing, dignity, family connection and quality of care,” Veldman says. ▲ A patient room gives families more than a chair beside the bed, with natural light, a parent zone and space for routine. NSW Health Minister Ryan Park says the building brings together “cutting-edge clinical services and thoughtfully designed spaces that prioritise the safety, comfort and wellbeing of young patients and their families”. Design as clinical strategy The design begins working before a child reaches a ward and the approach is legible at every scale. A landscaped forecourt leads into KidsWay, a colour-graded internal route turning a long path through existing hospital fabric into a calmer arrival experience. BLP associate and interior designer Mindy Fox says the intent was to move away from a clinical entry “without feeling overwhelming”. Fox says even short distractions can matter inside a paediatric hospital. “It doesn’t have to be a big distraction or a long distraction,” she says. “A three-minute distraction can be as impactful and create a core memory as something that’s an entire experience.” ▲ KidsWay uses colour and curves to turn a long internal route into a calmer journey towards care. The Wattle Building’s identity is drawn from the Parramatta River system. BLP associate architect Harsha Rajashekar describes the guiding concept as “under the river, on the river, and above the river”—with earthy tones and curved forms inside, and folded aluminium panels higher on the tower catching light to evoke the shimmer of water across the facade. The Reggio Emilia approach also shaped the interiors, treating children as active participants in their environment rather than passive patients moving through a system. ▲ Mindy Fox, Harsha Rajashekar and Tara Veldman of Billard Leece Partnership. A floorplate built for the long day Each patient room is planned around three zones: clinical care, the child and the parent. The parent zone sits at the window, where natural light is strongest, with a day bed, storage, a reading light and a curtain. The arrangement reflects a basic truth of paediatric care: parents and carers don’t visit, they stay. The building’s triangular floorplate presented clinical planning challenges, but BLP says it improves sightlines across ward wings and orients rooms toward winter gardens, outlook and daylight. ▲ Folded aluminium facade panels catch the light, echoing the shimmer of the Parramatta River system behind the design. Some rooms include ceiling-mounted tracking systems to allow a single clinician to move a patient from bed to ensuite, reducing manual handling demands on staff. On the oncology floor, where children may spend hours in a single chair receiving chemotherapy, floor-to-ceiling windows offer outdoor views, rooms can be closed for privacy, and ceiling artwork gives young patients a focal point during treatment. The desk, rather than the bedhead, is positioned as the child’s point of control. “They can personalise it. They can make it their own,” Fox says. ▲ Ceiling artwork gives children something gentle to focus on during treatment while natural light keeps the oncology floor open. Delivery and next steps The Westmead project followed a long delivery path, from funding in 2019 and state-significant planning approval in 2021 to main works from 2023 and completion this year. Its next test will be daily use. Families will move between KidsWay, play rooms and terraces while staying close to clinical support. The building’s value will sit not only in the services it adds to Westmead, but also in how carefully it has made room for the hours before, after and between care.

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