Papaya Clinic is an innovative and progressive women's health clinic in the Inner West of Sydney, with a vision to provide a safe nurturing space to address womens’ health concerns.

Our design philosophy is to bring out the warm, colorful and sophisticated branding of Papaya and create a space that is clinical but non-conventional, with bold freshness that represents the Papaya patient population of strong and independent women with bold transparency to break taboos and talk about women’s health issues in this society.

Papaya’s tagline is “patient-first healthcare”, it was crucial in this project that we consider the patient experience of wellness in every step of the design process. Our work embodies our belief that architecture in healthcare can trigger positive emotions, build a community and bring a different light to healthcare. The owner envisioned a space that caters for community health events, mothers groups, and a bub friendly place.

The Pilates area, with its multifunctional arch, serves as a reading nook with an inbuilt clinic library, or a safe space for mothers to breastfeeding their babies or for local health talks. Project brief included 4 treatment rooms, bathroom, reception area where you can fit 3-4 patients with prams, merchandise area, team rest area and Pilates studio. 

The budget was the major limitation of this project and managing this aspect in a rigorous approach was crucial. In order to meet the client budget, we were cautious with materials and joinery, ie. bench seat under the arch has been made with the waste material from the flooring, same as the stairs that connect the ground floor and the lower level.

Sustainability is emphasised in different aspects:

• the reduction of waste re-using those materials for onsite
• Maximising natural lighting inside the space and minimise the use of electricity

- Using only materials certified with low carbon emissions or low volatile organic compounds.