Gold Coast Secure Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit
Gold Coast Secure Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit
Gold Coast, Australia
About the Project
The Gold Coast Secure Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit is a groundbreaking new mental health ward designed by ARCH and built by BESIX Watpac in 2025 as an extension of the Gold Coast University Hospital campus. Equipped with 40 beds across two levels, the unit is designed to be home-like and recovery-oriented – focusing on patients experiencing severe and complex mental health disorders.
With a total project value of $122.744 million, the facility boasts multiple common areas, two family visiting rooms per level, two sensory rooms per level, five individual assessment rooms, two group therapy rooms per level, four gyms – two on each level – and an ADL kitchen on each level. The unit stands at the cutting edge of modern mental health care.
Challenge
Designing a secure mental health facility comes with complexity – the setting had to meet the rigorous medical and safety standards required of any mental health space while still maintaining the aesthetic balance necessary to foster the comfortable, home-like feel that the project was aiming for.
The aesthetic focus of the space was the incorporation of art that could contribute to the wellbeing of patients in a way that met the stringent medical requirements of the space. Specifically, the selected pieces had to adhere to the CHIME framework for healing art (Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment).
Solution
Specified by ARCH, Acrovyn By Design (ABD) wall protection provided the perfect answer to the project’s design questions. ABD provides an impact and scratch resistant barrier capable of defending the unit’s walls from wear and tear while also offering custom printing capability to incorporate art into the design space.
Gold Coast Health’s Creative Health Hub partnered with a diverse group of artists, including both emerging and established creatives. Each artist brought their own unique perspective, creativity and experience with mental health and wellbeing. Emerging designers were engaged through the Queensland College of Art and Design’s Liveworm Studio internship program. This provided students with the opportunity to have their work featured as part of the project. Established artists were selected through a competitive expression of interest process. They were chosen based on their connection to the local area, lived experience, and their creative response to the curatorial themes.
Artists Zoe Kleopa-Mircev, Holly Bryant, Elke Gill, Melony Gordon and psychologist-photographer Lucas Ford all contributed works to the project, each connected by a shared theme of nature. “Harmonious Mountains” and “Turquoise Dreamscape” are inspired by nature’s colours and forms, while “Gordon’s Elements” and “Turtle Journey” explore ideas of balance, healing, growth, and resilience through symbolic imagery. Ford’s photographs, “Lamington after the Rain” and “Sunrise with Seashells”, bring a sense of the outdoors inside, offering calm, comfort, and inspiration.
CS supplied over 60 panels of Acrovyn by Design, reproducing each artwork on durable, easy-to-maintain Acrovyn wall protection. Installed as large-scale murals, the artworks appear seamlessly across the walls. Each piece was recreated with perfect fidelity, bringing warmth, optimism, and a strong sense of identity to the unit, while maintaining the highest standards of patient health and safety.
