Starship Hospital PICU

Phase 1 of the $40m expansion project, which opened in November 2022, has provided Starship Hospital with 10 much-needed extra High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds, lifting the unit’s capacity to care for critically sick and injured children by almost 50 per cent. This phase included a new clinical support area, handover room, and storeroom. Reconfiguration of the existing HDU also saw an upgrade to a four-bed ICU room.

Chow:Hill’s design extends to Phase 2 of the project, a modular structural steel frame with CLT floors Atrium infill space that will enhance the hospital’s environment for patients, family members and its wider health teams. Currently under construction, an expanded administration and management area, greater public access, and the redevelopment of the hospital’s Tiny Bites café and Radio Lollipop are also key aspects of the design.

While effective and efficient functionality is a top priority of the unit, Chow:Hill’s health design team were tasked with the challenge of making the unit feel less clinical, reflecting the age and experiences of the patients, all of whom are children under the age of 16.

Brightly coloured floor vinyl delinates bed locations and provides staff and family to navigate between patients, while biophilic printed ceiling tiles reflect a tree canopy removing a hospital feel to evoke the calming, grounding feeling of being in nature.

Integral to the project has been the inclusion of a whānau area kai room for visiting parents and whanau members. Cultural design elements have been included through collaborative user group experiences with mana whenua and family members of Starship PICU patients.

 Starship’s PICU expansion project is not the first project Chow:Hill has been involved in. Our health design team have also shaped patient experiences with the modernised design of  Starship Hospital’s Day Stay Unit (DSU).