Project: Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct Arts and Cultural Strategy
Organisation: Health Infrastructure NSW
Place: Sydney
Year: 2019-2020
Project Type: Culture-led Placemaking, Strategy, Policy & Research
The Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct is a place where people involved in academic discovery and professional practices are working with patients and their families to provide compassionate, evidence-based healthcare.
The co-location of students, researchers, professionals and industry focused on health and education has driven the sharing of knowledge and collaboration to create solutions to complex problems. It is a contemporary, dynamic place of innovation.
The precinct has over 13,000 staff and more than 59,000 students and is recognised as a key economic powerhouse in the Greater Sydney Commission plans and in the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy. Over $1 billion in infrastructure development will occur in the precinct in the next 3 years.
Objectives
The precinct partners including Health Infrastructure NSW and University of NSW, Prince of Wales Hospital and Sydney Children’s Hospital wished to ensure a holistic approach to embedding arts and culture across the precinct planning, construction and operation of this significant re-development project.
Outcomes
City People produced an Arts and Cultural Strategy which aims to weave the precinct together by embedding arts and culture so that the precinct is experienced as ‘more than the sum of its parts’ through:
- way-finding
- artistic design elements in buildings and public spaces
- public art
- opportunities to participate in cultural and learning activities
To produce the Arts and Cultural Strategy we:
- engaged with diverse stakeholders
- undertook extensive research to learn from other innovative places across the world
- analysed the specific context of the precinct and the challenges and opportunities it presented
- liaised closely with the steering committee of precinct partners.
Our approach to the Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct Arts and Cultural Strategy aimed to:
- reflect the precinct’s innovation and creativity in the character and design of future buildings and outdoor spaces
- recommend programs which would encourage people in the precinct to interact, connect and collaborate.
City People considers culture-led placemaking as a galvanising force in the forging of a place’s identity and how it is experienced. In a health and education context, these benefits can literally change the course of people’s lives.
Because our team were at the centre of the NSW Government’s development of the Health and the Arts Framework, we brought to this project a deep understanding of the benefits that arts and culture can bring to the wellbeing of patients, staff and communities in these environments.
For more information, please visit Health Infrastructure – Randwick Campus Redevelopment or this UNSW Precinct flyer (link opens PDF).