Victoria’s largest interdisciplinary university health clinic has opened at La Trobe University’s Bundoora campus in Melbourne, marking the completion of a four-storey building designed by Woods Bagot. The facility combines clinical teaching with public healthcare services, expanding student placement capacity while providing allied health care to the wider community.
Covering 6,600m², the Health Clinic will train an additional 400 allied health professionals each year. Students will undertake supervised clinical placements before entering professional practice, while the public will have access to services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, audiology, orthoptics, podiatry, dietetics and nutrition, and psychology.
The project replaces two separate clinical facilities, consolidating teaching, consulting, and treatment spaces into a single interdisciplinary building, creating greater opportunities for students and educators from different disciplines to work together.
Landscape shapes the architectural expression
Creeks, waterways, and native vegetation influenced the building’s sculpted form as well as its relationship with the surrounding landscape.
Hand-laid glazed brick in foliage green, wattle yellow, and earth red wraps the building’s exterior. Behind the façade, a simple rectilinear volume has been carved into folded and angled forms that create entrances, courtyards, and outdoor gathering spaces.
Landscape design continues through the surrounding public spaces. Emergent, an Australian landscape architecture practice, designed the planted forecourts and internal courtyards, while an indoor winter garden brings daylight and planting into the centre of the floorplate.
Daylight guides movement through the clinic
A thin floorplate lets natural light reach corridors and waiting areas while maintaining clear sightlines throughout the building. Waiting spaces line the northern and eastern edges of each floor, overlooking the campus landscape rather than internal corridors.
Consultation rooms, specialist treatment areas, teaching spaces, staff workspaces, and shared support facilities are organised for both healthcare delivery and clinical education within the same building.
Timber finishes, indoor planting, and a restrained palette of eucalypt green and pink clay echo the colours of the surrounding landscape. Outside, the project includes a reconfigured car park and a landscaped arrival space at the corner of Science Drive and Ring Road.
All-electric building targets lower environmental impact
The Health Clinic has been designed as an all-electric building targeting a minimum 5-Star Green Star rating under the Green Building Council of Australia. It targets a 20% reduction in upfront carbon emissions and operational energy use, a 45% reduction in potable water use, and the generation of renewable electricity through an on-site solar photovoltaic array.
Construction was delivered by Kane Constructions, an Australian construction company, two months ahead of Practical Completion.
The Health Clinic is one element of La Trobe University’s broader health innovation investment at Bundoora. Australian infrastructure investor and development manager Plenary acted as investor, financial arranger, and development manager for the project.
