Incorporating Green Design Practices in Your Healthcare Clinic Fitout

With an increasing focus on environmental sustainability, green design practices are becoming more commonplace in healthcare clinic fitouts.

Opting for a “green” fitout has a natural synergy for healthcare clinics, with many eco-friendly design practices proven to have a positive impact on people’s mental or physical health.

For example, incorporating more windows or installing a skylight brings in more natural light, which has been shown to improve people’s mood and happiness. Likewise, adding some greenery in the form of a green wall can help to make your patients feel calmer and more at home.

In addition to the health benefits, incorporating green design practices in your healthcare clinic fitout can help to attract new patients. With a growing cultural shift towards reducing our impact on the environment, green design choices can make your clinic more appealing to patients who find this important.

What are green design practices?

Green design practices encompass a wide range of eco-friendly and sustainable elements. It doesn’t however mean you need to go “all in” and exclusively use sustainable and recycled materials in your project. Instead, when making your fitout decisions, focus on the eco-friendly elements that will make the most impact in your fitout, and fit within your budget.

Some more common green design practices include:

• Using sustainable materials such as timber, concrete, natural stone or environmentally friendly vinyl planks;
• Including large windows or skylights in your clinic;
• Choosing non-toxic materials and low or no VOC (volatile organic compound) paints;
• Incorporating greenery throughout your practice;
• Reusing construction materials;
• Opting for LED lighting.

Bringing nature inside

Elite’s design team recently implemented a number of green design practices in the 1,000sqm Medical on Burleigh healthcare clinic fitout project. The clinic’s owners wanted to depict an industrial interior theme throughout the building – including eight-metre-high ceilings, exposed air-conditioning services and suspended lighting – and the green elements chosen perfectly complement this style.

Eco-friendly timber features strongly throughout the practice, with the material used for the planter boxes in the reception area, storage cupboards, and panelling in the waiting room and hallways.

Greenery is integrated throughout Medical on Burleigh, connecting patients and clinic staff with nature to enhance wellbeing and expedite healing. Pot plants can be found throughout the practice, along with plantar boxes in each of the waiting rooms. The stand-out feature however is the multi-level vertical garden in the reception area. Featuring a range of indoor plants, the lush garden offers a true sense of bringing nature indoors.

Learn more

Are you considering incorporating green design practices in your new or refurbished healthcare clinic? Elite’s in-house architects and designers have the experience and expertise to help. Give us a call today on 1300 765 344.