Sanctuary Early Learning Centre Health and Knowledge Precinct is located in the new Proxima building at Lumina, a pioneering innovation precinct on the Gold Coast. Located beside the Gold Coast University Hospital, the precinct has a focus on co-location and collaboration between hospitals, health providers, universities and start-ups. Working together with Griffith University’s Hopkins Centre and a range of health professionals, the new centre will be the first of its kind designed to nurture all children, including those with additional needs and abilities.

Accessibility for both seen and unseen additional needs have been holistically considered throughout the entire design, ranging from play areas for children, through to back of house office space for operations. Particular attention has been paid to transitional spaces.

Referencing findings from the University of Tasmania Autism Networks’ Design across the Spectrum: Play Spaces (2016) by Dr Ceridwen Owen, we employed their strategy of articulating thresholds. Using colour, texture and sightlines we created distinct thoroughfares between spaces, marking circulation paths and identifying where one space starts and the other ends.

Photography: Cieran Murphy