Health spaces that promote wellbeing

for patients and the people who care for them

Health hubs and Hospitals

At Carabiner, we work to improve lives. This means designing benchmark health facilities that optimise service delivery and care, and shape healthy and positive environments for staff, patients and their families.

As Health architects we understand the vast complexities of healthcare facilities. The subject matter itself is complex, with the functional efficiency of highly technical environments combined with the importance of a patient-centred experience. The stakeholder environment is complex, often with large and diverse stakeholders involved who are extremely time-poor. And within an operational health campus, the delivery process is complex, requiring well-considered design, decanting and programming to minimise disruptions.

Every health environment we have designed has been different, in its context, community, and service profile. However the overarching objective has been the same - we are striving to create places that help improve people’s health and wellbeing, and ultimately make people feel better.
In healthcare design, it is common to work with large and diverse stakeholder groups, including the client group, contracting agency, hospital executive, department heads, clinicians and user groups, just to name a few. We adeptly manage the various stakeholder relationships, guiding the process to maximise the input of all, and maintain continuity of attendance. This includes demonstrating respect for all contributors’ time (most stakeholders are inherently time poor) through programming workshops well in advance, generally in a regular time slot, and with enough time in between to progress the design sufficiently for meaningful input.
Refurbishments, expansions and redevelopments of operational health campuses are by far the most complex of all health projects. Not only do designers need to consider the functional requirements of the project brief, we must also consider the construction impacts within highly sensitive environments. Carabiner has amassed significant experience working on diverse projects within operational health campuses and have developed a tried and tested approach that effectively minimises impacts on operations.
Health environments support patients at their most vulnerable. The journey to health can be a long one for some, and at times patients can spend considerable amounts of time within a hospital environment. It is therefore crucial for health architecture to be culturally responsive, and to make patients from diverse cultures feel welcome and understood.
Carabiner has been designing healthcare facilities for 20 years. We appreciate the importance of these facilities in shaping the lives and experiences of a broad community of users. So we don’t take our responsibility lightly. We test our designs rigorously to ensure alignment with the brief and our client’s needs. We partner with our clients to develop solutions that really make a difference.