Joan Kirner Women's & Children' Hospital

The new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Sunshine, Melbourne, represents a pioneering approach to healthcare architecture in Australia. Designed by Lyons Architecture, the nine-storey hospital integrates colour, design, and materiality to support patient wellbeing, reduce stress, and enhance orientation for visitors and staff.

The hospital provides comprehensive services including a birthing floor with 20 suites and four pools, outpatient clinics, imaging facilities, operating theatres, a special-care nursery (including a neonatal intensive care unit), a short-stay paediatric ward, inpatient wards, and overnight accommodation for patients from regional towns.

Salutogenic Design Principles

Lyons Architecture applied salutogenic principles—a design philosophy that focuses on factors supporting health rather than illness—throughout the hospital. The interiors feature calming surfaces, natural materials, muted colours, abundant natural light, and thoughtfully placed artworks and views. Circular motifs recur throughout the building, from floorplates, flooring, joinery, and bulkheads to playful lily pads in children’s areas, serving both aesthetic and navigational purposes.

Colour-coded design strategies guide patients and visitors through the facility, while specific spaces, such as the special-care nursery, incorporate cool greens to create a soothing environment. Day beds for family members ensure loved ones feel at home, reflecting the hospital’s holistic approach to patient and family wellbeing.

Colour and Materiality

The hospital’s colourful façade is a key component of its patient-centred design, reflecting its surrounding context. Lower green levels echo regional gardens, mid-level oranges reference suburban tiled roofs, and upper tones suggest a cloudscape. KEIM Concretal-Lasur in 16 carefully chosen shades was used to achieve a semi-transparent, watercolour effect on the concrete façade.

“KEIM’s mineral products match the concrete perfectly and emphasise its character while offering exceptional UV stability and lightfastness,” explains Ralf Eckl, KEIM Export Sales Manager. Unlike highly plastic-coated systems, KEIM’s mineral glazing supports longevity and environmental performance without compromising aesthetics.

Impact

Western Health CEO Russell Harrison praised the design:

“The feedback from our patients, their families, and our staff has been overwhelmingly positive. The building responds to the needs of patients and reflects quality, functional design.”

For Lyons director Corbett Lyon, the project marks a return to Sunshine Hospital after nearly two decades. “Decades on, I am still convinced a building can be both functional and a wonderful work of architecture,” he notes.

The project also contributes to ongoing research at the University of Melbourne, where Lyon and colleagues are investigating the impact of paediatric hospital design on patients, parents, and staff. The findings aim to inform future hospital designs across Australia.

Conclusion

The Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital exemplifies the power of thoughtful architecture and material selection in healthcare. KEIM Concretal-Lasur helped achieve a façade that is visually engaging, contextually relevant, and durable—demonstrating how colour, design, and mineral-based finishes can actively contribute to patient wellbeing.

Product Highlight:

• KEIM Concretal-Lasur: Mineral-based semi-transparent glaze for concrete facades, offering UV stability, lightfastness, and long-term durability.

Three questions for Corbett Lyon:

What makes the new generation of hospitals?

New hospitals are being designed with the social and psychosocial needs of patients and their experiences in hospital in mind. These facilities increasingly incorporate natural light and ventilation, views to the outdoors, connections to green spaces, colour and spatial strategies to create a healthcare environment that is both supportive and therapeutic.The question needs to be asked "How can the building be designed to positively support people during their care experience?"

What are your general recommendations for architects and colour designers designing hospitals?

The building should have the characteristics of a hotel - a place to rest and recuperate, not quite like home, but with the same supportive and restorative qualities. Spatial arrangements that allow for clear and intuitive wayfinding, the design and layout of rooms that give patients back a sense of manageability and control, and connections to nature are also important.

What colour tones make patients feel comfortable?

The colours used in the building should be derived from clinical and scientific research on colour theory as well as from the natural colours of the environment. This is because colour, natural materials and also integrated art, when used extensively, promote a sense of well-being and provide a pleasant distraction for patients.

Corbett Lyon is one of the Founding Directors of Lyons and a lead Design Director of the studio. He is one of Australia's most awarded design practitioners and brings over 30 years experience and expertise to the design of complex, high-stakes, major public buildings and public precincts.

KEIM Products Used	Concretal-Lasur
Architect	Lyons Architecture
Applicator	Higgins
Photography	Dianna Snape