Billard Leece Partnership created the design for the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Center located in Albury–Wodonga, Australia.

The award-winning Centre’s design resolves the need for a highly collaborative integrated working environment in a large complex building, with the contrasting need for tranquil deinstitutionalized space for patients in times of stress, fostering optimism and wellbeing through sensitive and considered design.

Its healing character is established through intrinsically therapeutic gardens that benefit patients, loved ones, and the wider community; a source of wayfinding as well as a place of solace and relief from the arduous treatment journey. Throughout the centre, there is a focus on natural light and contact with the outdoors.

Radiation bunkers, traditionally located underground, are on the ground floor where patients enter via a light-filled atrium. Courtyards interact with public areas, where floor-to-ceiling windows illuminate spaces with natural light year-round. Innovative floor plans enable bedroom wings to reach out into the landscape; window bays with distant views provide patients and their families with places of respite and contemplation

The materials palette combines soft colors, textures and natural finishes, providing visual comfort, dissolving boundaries between the Centre and the outside, and encouraging a domestic atmosphere. Watercolor washes by Emery Studio feature throughout, enriching the patient experience and reflecting the healing nature of the space.

Architect: Billard Leece Partnership
Photography: Ian Ten Seldam