Description:

The Why

This ambitious dental practice wished to create a state of the art facility that shifted the perception of visiting the dentist to a calming, positive and everyday experience.

With no lease opportunities that enabled this vision, the establishment of a long term investment and permanent “home” for the practice was key to securing that, along with staff and patient retention.

The Idea

A simple box forms the base of the building, with large eaves that protect it from the elements and help control the internal temperature and light intensity. To start the patient’s experience in a positive way, the box form is transformed into an easy to locate landmark with the inclusion of a screen. The screen and other ornate features were inspired by the traditional architectural elements of the owner’s Korean family heritage - in particular stone plinths, posts, and latticework. This unique combination and references to the neighbouring villas ensures this building both fits in and stands out.

Seen from the street, the curved features and warm tones of the reception and waiting areas continue that welcoming experience and create a calming environment. Moving into the dental studios, the focus shifts towards efficiency for staff, with a more clinical feel to emphasise precision and hygiene.

The Design

Scale, siting, materials and colour mimic the many large villas along the street. The proportions of the screen reflect the fenestrations of these homes, and add movement to the building when approaching or passing by.

Being in a residential area, the 300m² maximum zone allowance made for potentially tight spatial conditions. Arranged around a wide loop hallway, all rooms are easily accessed without feeling small or difficult to navigate. Within the studios, materials and detailing are durable and easily maintained, and findings from many visits to their previous practice were reviewed in collaboration with the owner to gain efficiencies in layout while not compromising patient experience. Learnings from Covid-19 were incorporated, such as positively pressurised fresh air to individual rooms, and best practice circulation with separate entry and exit points.

Interior comfort and low operational carbon are guaranteed with high performance detailing and material specification, while thermal modelling ensures the correct amount of passive solar gain and appropriately sized services; all minimising ongoing operational costs. Timber was favoured in all options for its carbon sequestration, including PLT for the midfloor, thermally modified weatherboards and battens for the exterior cladding, and LVL timber for all other structures. Each base build element was assessed for carbon, and the data was used to make informed decisions about material selections. This resulted in a base build embodied carbon content of NEGATIVE 12,011kg-CO2-eq.

What Elevates the Work

This building has positive patient and staff experiences at its core, and achieves this alongside fiscal and contextual sensitivity. Sympathetically including the owner's personal context creates a deeper sense of ownership, as well as extending the personality of the building and celebrating modern Aotearoa’s make up of diverse cultures.