Billard Leece Partnership

Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre

Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller

BELMONT COMMUNITY REHABILITATION CENTRE

Billard Leece Partnership

PHOTOGRAPHS
Tony Miller

YEAR
2012

LOCATION
Reynolds Road, Belmont VIC 3216, Australia

Text description provided by architect.

The Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre offers an active, goal-focused rehabilitation program in a residential setting.

Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller
Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller

The program focuses on preventing further disability by supporting clients to reduce the chance of relapses and improve their wellbeing.

Sited adjacent the Kardinia Health GP Super Clinic (completed by Billard Leece Partnership in 2009) and connected via enclosed pedestrian link to the Community Health Centre with which it shares reception, the Rehabilitation Centre is an important addition to this community healthcare hub four kilometres from Victoria’s.

Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller
Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller

Located on a prominent corner, the building form and materiality seek to engage with the surroundings. White cypress timber was selected as the primary façade material due to its sustainability, inherent warmth and natural appeal.

The façade is articulated with recessed self-shading windows to the street elevations, and expressed sunshades to the windows to the garden areas. 

The strong motif of glass and timber showcases the timber’s natural grain and colour, expressing the form and design of the façade and creates a non-institutional and engaging building, easy to construct and maintain.

Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller
Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller
Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller

Sitting in a garden setting, a new mobility garden provides external rehabilitation facilities and seating in a wind protected sunny courtyard between the new Rehabilitation Centre and existing Community Health Centre.

The north-west facing courtyard façade, engaging with the garden and solar orientation, consists of framed panels of ship lap timber that contrast with large windows screened with dynamic folded sun shades.

Large self-shading windows to all habitable rooms provide natural light, ventilation and aspect to the single storey Centre’s surrounding garden. The rigorous panellised timber delineates a crisp pattern juxtaposed with the shades’ dynamic shadows.

Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
© Tony Miller


Belmont Community Rehabilitation Centre
Ground Floor Plan

Billard Leece Partnership
T +61 3 96565000
Billard Leece Partnership
level 20/485 La Trobe St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia