Mercy Health – Ballarat

Mercy Health – Ballarat

Natural light streaming through the empty tenancy was a brilliant starting point for this beautiful workspace for Mercy Health. The senior workplace strategists conducted multiple surveys & meetings with the user groups to identify all organizational efficiencies & used best practice modelling to create the optimized workplace. Wellness was a critical component of the design including all workstations to be within 7.5 meters of natural light & ensuring free flow ventilation in the air-conditioning & doorway locations. Acoustic mitigation strategies included wall panelling, acoustic carpet tiles to minimize ‘foot fall’, and acoustic workstation screening on the full height adjustable electric workstations. The panoramic utilities document preparation area sweeps into the staff kitchen with dramatically long work benching, and LED backlit mosaic tiles on the splash back. Full disability access compliance was achieved with new toilet construction & shopfront as per the Mercy Health mission of care from the cradle to palliative care.

Filled with natural light, this tenancy inspired our Space Planning Team to work with its curves, creating a segmented, slightly pizza-esque style layout. In order to ensure all workstations were within 7.5 metres of natural light (as per the WELL ™ Standard) , we placed them next to the full height windows facing on to Bakery Hill’s iconic roundabout, situating the training room & communications room to the back of the tenancy.

In the reception area, a wall of extra deep, open back & floor cupboards provide storage for commodes & wheelchairs in transit, and when closed look like a feature wall of Soft Walnut matte Polytec. Couches in whale linen and a muted pink velvet provide colour and sparkle to the neutral space. Sandy timber-look vinyl floor planks complete the space and ensure easy cleaning & reduces footfall when compared to engineered timber planks.

Moving into back of house, a generous meeting room with natural light streaming in, the spacious training room & the manager’s office within convenient distance to the staff workstations each have a wall of powder blue acoustic paneling , which dampens echo and provides an additional texture to the space. We are often called in too late to fix acoustic nightmares - check out the blog here.

In the workstation area, which is flooded with stunning natural light (yes, even in cloudy Ballarat!), we installed electric height adjustable desks in white powdercoat, ensuring 100% ergonomic capacity.

Mercy Health has an admirable mission of care from the cradle to palliative care. This drove the Design Team to select soft colours and finishes, including a pale grey-brown timber look laminate (Soft Walnut matte by Polytec), soft pinks, greys & blues which is one of their brand colours. Selected walls painted in Dulux Ellen Quarter keep the clean, light filled space from feeling too ‘clinical’, and the ocean of blue carpet (Retro Tide Pool by Godfrey Hirst ) surging through from the front to meet the shore of grey-brown carpet (Retro Blood Stone by Godfrey Hirst) adds a fun, unexpected touch.  White powdercoat throughout contributes to the fresh sensation throughout.

The Space Planning Team situated the utilities unit next to the kitchen, enabling us to create a monster length of joinery, totalling 7.1m long. This gives ample document preparation & food preparation space. Full height cupboards in Soft Walnut matte Polytec and Stone Grey matte Polytec  create a separation between the toilets, one of which is a disabled toilet, installed to meet the requirements of the BCA (Building Code of Australia) and the Mercy Health mission.

In the breakout, a Tetris- inspired rug in soft pastels unites the colours used throughout the space. A standard height table with retro- style black chairs ensures the Mercy Health mission of accessibility for all, avoiding high stools which are awkward for older people & those with an impediment to use. A question that often comes up when designing a new office is - Does my office need to be disability compliant?

We loved working with the Team at Mercy Health! Their mission is admirable, and we loved being able to help them achieve it in their new Ballarat site.

Please contact us here if you would like to hear more about this project! 

"I would recommend ICON INTERIORS, I would use you again. I feel like you took our brief & ran with it. And you provided a product that is exactly what we were after. I loved it! Loved builder trend, everything was so transparent – I actually never really needed to talk to you guys!
And just checking on the photos that were uploaded each day, really handy." Sarah - Mercy Health