Insider look at the SAHMRI building

Insider look at the SAHMRI buildingA new video gives a behind-the-scenes look at Woods Bagot’s landmark project, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), a $200-million Commonwealth-funded facility for world-class health and medical research. Designed by Woods Bagot, the Adelaide building features architecture and interiors that aim to inspire and promote the building’s function. It incorporates nine research modules for more than 600 researchers, fostering innovation and improvements in community health services. The transparent facade showcases two internal atriums, while the building’s form is expressed further by its unique triangulated diagrid facade, inspired by the skin of a pine cone. SAHMRI made a clean sweep at the recent Australian Institute of Architects’ South Australian Architecture Awards, winning the Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture, the Keith Neighbour Award for Commercial Architecture, the Derrick Kendrick Award for Sustainable Architecture, the Robert Dickson Award for Interior Architecture and the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture. The jury commented: “While the general field showed commendable attention to specific regional and local concerns, the entries were dominated by the global perspective, programmatic scope and innovation, formal resolution and technical excellence of the SAHMRI.” SAHMRI will represent South Australia as a finalist in the National Architecture Awards to be announced on 6 November. It is also short-listed in the prestigious INSIDE World Festival of Interiors Awards, which will be announced in Singapore on 1-3 October. In addition, the project was short-listed in the Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) Hospitality and Public Space categories as well as the WAN Facade Awards, and was runner-up in the Innovation Prize for design technology excellence at the Revit Technology Conference. In other news, SAHMRI has been certified as a LEED Gold building – a first for a laboratory building in Australia. “We immediately recognised we needed more than just a building – it had to be emblematic of a new era of research excellence for SA,” said SAHMRI chair Raymond Spencer. “SAHMRI’s headquarters had to be dynamic, creative and open and, most importantly, responsive to the work of our research teams. “Woods Bagot not only delivered Adelaide’s most iconic building, they have actually changed the city’s skyline forever. Together, we’ve built a world-class facility that all South Australians can be proud of.” View the video HERE