Gomeroi people of the Gamilaraay/Kamilaroi Nation
New South Wales
The redevelopment of Gunnedah Hospital delivers a transformative upgrade to provide a contemporary healing environment. The design responds to long-standing site challenges: ageing infrastructure, clinical spaces disconnected from local landscape and culture, difficult wayfinding, and lack of natural light.
A new single-storey acute services building is carefully integrated with the existing campus, strengthening clinical connections and continuity of care. Emergency services are co-located with a 23-bed inpatient unit and maternity facilities, supporting contemporary clinical models and improving operational efficiency.
Intuitive navigation is anchored by a 24-hour emergency “beacon” entry, which successfully separates public and ambulance circulation to enhance safety and flow. Double-height spaces, highlight windows and pitched roof forms draw daylight deep into the plan. The design deeply embeds local artwork and culture throughout including backlit perforated panels inspired by rivers and Country – creating not just a clinical upgrade, but a welcoming place where light, culture and care meet.
COLORBOND® Award for Steel Architecture
Hospitals can be austere and unwelcoming places – the new Gunnedah Hospital is the opposite. It has had immediate social impact, appreciated as a genuine community asset, and a welcoming place of care, compassion and joy. Deep listening to the community, including patients, Indigenous elders and staff, produced an “emotional brief” that profoundly shaped the project.
The female-led team brought a rigorous commitment to excellence, focussing on considered spatial relationships and material use to improve the experiences of patients, visitors and staff. The locally responsive shed typology facilitates a clear planning strategy, combining efficient operations, framed views through the building and varied relationships to a series of landscaped courtyards.
Materials, colour and graphics are deployed poetically and playfully, differentiating old and new, evoking the surrounding agricultural landscape, creating identifiable landmarks and communicating stories of place in art, naming and wayfinding, embedding culture into the building and reinforcing its cultural resonance.
COLORBOND® Award for Steel Architecture
Hospitals can be austere and unwelcoming places – the new Gunnedah Hospital is the opposite. It has had immediate social impact, appreciated as a genuine community asset, and a welcoming place of care, compassion and joy. Deep listening to the community, including patients, Indigenous elders and staff, produced an “emotional brief” that profoundly shaped the project.
The female-led team brought a rigorous commitment to excellence, focussing on considered spatial relationships and material use to improve the experiences of patients, visitors and staff. The locally responsive shed typology facilitates a clear planning strategy, combining efficient operations, framed views through the building and varied relationships to a series of landscaped courtyards.
Materials, colour and graphics are deployed poetically and playfully, differentiating old and new, evoking the surrounding agricultural landscape, creating identifiable landmarks and communicating stories of place in art, naming and wayfinding, embedding culture into the building and reinforcing its cultural resonance.
NSW Health Infrastructure engaged ARCH to transform the Gunnedah Hospital campus into a contemporary healing environment for the community.
ARCH worked with the staff and stakeholders to design and deliver a light-filled facility that prioritises care while embracing the local culture and embodying the landscape.
Since opening, the facility has been met with warmth and pride. Residents describe the new emergency department as “very impressive” and celebrated the building as “something Gunnedah can be very proud of”.
The project demonstrates how thoughtful design, collaboration and community engagement can create a healthcare environment that creates a place of connection and care.
Sacha Anderson, Design Architect
Rebecca Plumsted, Design Architect
David Carstens, Project designer
Denise Widjaja, Interior Designer
James Campbell, Interior Designer
Theo Moradides, Senior Architectural Technician
Sally Bates, Interior Designer
Ben Wilson, Architecture Techinican
Tiziana Tovar, Architectural Technician
Ana Piedrahita, Architectural Techinican
Maricel Marbus, Project Architect
Alex Rayfield, Architectural Technician
Nicholas Pang, Architectural Technician
RP Infrastructure, Project Manager
Altus Group, Quantity Surveyor
Blackett Maguire + Goldsmith, BCA & Access Consultant
GeoLink, Town Planner
Northrop Consulting Engineers, Acoustics, 3rd party reviewer Facade Engineering, Building Services, Structural & Civil Design
Stewart Surveys, Landscape Consultant
Studio Gerber, Signage & Wayfinding
ARUP, Fire Engineering
Parking and Traffic Consultants, Traffic Engineering
JK Geotechnics, Geotechnical Engineer
Credwell Energy, ESD Consultant
Vineyard Joinery, Joinery Contractor
Ronnie Long, Warwick Keen, Rachael Passfield, Monique Hope, Commissioned Artworks