The Haven project aimed to deliver a threshold experience into a domestic environment, centred around the kitchen environment. Upon entering The Haven, you leave the hospital environment and are surrounded by landscaped gardens and green walls.

It provides mixed use space that concentrates on the individual and social needs of visitors; a place with a sense of ‘we are all in it together.’

The freedom of choice, however small, is one of the key human desire. Autonomy over one’s environment is a comforting and reassuring option in a situation that is imposed rather than chosen.



The typology of The Haven is part of a broader landscape and circulation system. It permits the garden to be experienced as a designed landscape from above with the patterns formed in the planting. It is also a connecting thread that provides a linkage between the buildings at the Hospital.

Hospitals, by their nature, offer a built experience that presents limitations. When considering these contrasts, the design deliberately avoids the expected norms.

It should be possible to be reminded of what is the quintessential Brisbane experience winter and summer without adversely affecting hospital treatment or stay for the patient and contributing in a positive way to their experience.