Aged Care Spaces OUR CONTACTS Neil Christensen | 0412 565 801 | nchristensen@bcarchitects.com.au Shirley Cooper | 0414 786 921 | scooper@bcarchitects.com.au
Aged Care Spaces
Contents
Our studio
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Our people
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Spaces we’ve created
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the spaces and places where we work, and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We honour the design ingenuity of First Peoples over millennia, their unique contribution to our understanding of place, and care for the Country on which we create.
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Aged Care Spaces
Our studio
39 years young. City and regionally based.
Our collaborative approach.
We’re Baldasso Cortese, a 45-strong architecture, interior design and master planning practice based in Naarm, Melbourne and Djiling, Geelong.
Our collaborative team focuses on designing and delivering projects with community at the heart.
Founded by Anthony Baldasso and Steven Cortese, our practice is well known for the depth and diversity of our portfolio. We have completed master plans and built projects across aged care, child care, colleges, community centres, health centres, schools, and social housing. We are also experts in mixed-use commercial and retail rollout projects.
We work at the intersection of people, place, and wellbeing. Each project is thoughtfully designed with the client’s needs and surroundings at the forefront. We create spaces that connect people… the practical, emotional and social spaces between us.
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Aged Care Spaces
Images of our Geelong and Melbourne studios. Photography | Hilary Walker
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Our people
Our people make great spaces.
Our diverse workplace.
Our strength as a design and delivery partner comes from our talented, committed team.
We encourage individual voices, and a workplace culture that champions equity, diversity and inclusion.
We bring together diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experiences across urban and regional contexts.
This enables true design innovation, underpinned by our shared vision and values.
This shared understanding helps us listen closely, connect with our clients and work collaboratively to deliver successful project outcomes.
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Meet our Aged Care sector leaders
STEVEN CORTESE Co-Founder and Design Director Registered Architect, Victoria
NEIL CHRISTENSEN Director and Care/Health Team Lead
Steve co-founded BC with Anthony Baldasso nearly 40 years ago. Since then, he has led the design and delivery of numerous care projects in Victoria, NSW, and New Zealand.
Neil is one of BC’s four directors and leads the Care and Health sectors, delivering spaces ranging from residential aged care, early childhood centres, and integrated care/health facilities.
Steve is an inspirational mentor to both established and emerging architects at the practice. He maintains strong ties with the University of Melbourne, his alma mater, and serves as Chair of the Newman College Council’s Building Committee, a co-educational residential college affiliated with the University.
Neil is committed to delivering highquality, timely, and cost-effective outcomes, balancing confidence with commercial insight.
Steve is a strong advocate for First Nations partnerships and environmentally sustainable design. He believes intelligent design can reduce operational costs while enhancing wellbeing.
As project lead, he anticipates deliverables, communicates clearly, and addresses questions of any complexity. His extensive knowledge of the building process supports design that serves future generations.
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Aged Care Spaces
Meet our Aged Care sector leaders
SHIRLEY COOPER
TIM PYKE
Principal, Interiors | Geelong
Principal, Design Lead Registered Architect, Victoria
Based at our Geelong studio, Shirley leads care-sector interior projects across Victoria. She designs and delivers refined, aged-friendly interiors for our clients.
Tim is an award-winning architect and BC’s Design Lead across care, community, education and health sectors.
With over 20 years of experience across various project types, Shirley collaborates with teams to develop award-winning and highly refined interior solutions. Shirley ensures each interior space is environmentally sustainable, welcoming, tailored to the client’s needs and vision, and beautiful to live in.
In addition to his refined design approach, Tim is an expert in 3D modelling, allowing him to resolve complex spatial issues efficiently. Tim leads our Reconciliation Action Plan working group and facilitates regular internal design critiques, bringing together diverse perspectives to explore ideas for ongoing projects. For the past 15 years, Tim has led RMIT’s Design Studio (Masters and Bachelor-level programs).
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Aged Care Spaces
Meet our Aged Care sector leaders
FRANCENE O’CONNOR Principal, Interiors | Melbourne
RAJ SENANAYAKE
Fran is an architecture and interior design specialist with 15+ years’ experience on complex aged care and health projects in Queensland and Victoria.
Raj is a registered architect and urban designer with 25+ years’ experience delivering major health projects across public and private sectors.
Her portfolio spans new developments, expansions, aged care hubs, mental health and research facilities, and refurbishments.
His expertise covers hospitals, clinics, aged care, and large health precincts, from strategic briefing and master planning to detailed design and delivery.
Fran manages projects from early concept to delivery, translating briefs into peoplefocused environments.
He leads multidisciplinary teams on hospitals, clinics, and health master plans. Raj is known for evidence-based, sustainable design that supports patient well-being, staff efficiency, and longterm operational needs, while balancing clinical, operational, and budget considerations.
She collaborates with clients and consultants, integrating interior architecture and materials for durable, safe environments, with a focus on infection control and compliance.
Principal, Health Specialist Registered Architect, Victoria
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Aged Care spaces we’ve created
Aged Care Spaces
TLC Clifton Views Care Hub LOCATION Fitzroy North, Victoria FACILITY TYPE Residential aged care TRADITIONAL LAND Wurundjeri
TLC Aged Care engaged us to develop an innovative design that would maximise the yield of their 915 sqm site in Melbourne’s inner north.
The site’s prominence led us to develop a multi-level solution, thoroughly researched and carefully designed. We navigated tight planning controls, optimised vehicle access, and ensured safety compliance for the 123-bed aged care facility, which serves residents with high care needs. After a rigorous approval process, we secured a permit for Australia’s tallest dedicated aged care facility. Our 10-storey design includes unique safety features such as emergency escape elevators and dual fire safety compartments on each floor.
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Co-located health services benefit residents and the wider neighbourhood, challenging traditional aged care design. Each level offers kitchens, lounges, and bright sitting nooks. Amenities like private dining, hairdressing, activity rooms, and a virtual reality theatre encourage residents to explore the building.
Photography | Kane Jarrod 11
Aged Care Spaces
TLC Homestead Integrated Care Hub LOCATION Wallington, Victoria FACILITY TYPE Residential aged care TRADITIONAL LAND Wadawurrung
These facilities have attracted rural Homestead residents who appreciate the wideopen spaces and country homestead Lakes (75 atmosphere. beds) and The The facility offers 280 residential beds, respite beds, a retail pharmacy, a Homestead (60 four café, and a medical centre. Services include general practitioners, beds), located physiotherapy, a hydrotherapy pool, mobile radiology, pathology, telehealth, in Wallington, and other allied health services for residents and the local community. Geelong, Victoria, were TLC’s first aged care homes, built in the early 1990s. 12
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The redevelopment linked the separate facilities, creating a single unified and integrated community.
This integration improved operational efficiency, safety risks associated with crossing between the existing facilities, and amenity for both the residents and staff of the facilities.
Photography | Kane Jarrod 13
Aged Care Spaces
TLC Warrilly Gardens Integrated Care Hub LOCATION Armstrong Creek, Victoria FACILITY TYPE Residential aged care TRADITIONAL LAND Wadawurrung
facility accommodates 180 TLC’s Warrilly The residents and provides a supportive and comfortable setting for ageing in place. Gardens hub is complemented by a range provides much- The of co-located services including a pharmacy, café, a GP clinic, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy pool, mobile radiology, needed aged pathology and tele-health for both TLC’s care and allied residents and the local community. Our design successfully balances the services for client’s commercial and operational imperatives, with the needs of the the rapidly centre’s residents and the surrounding neighbourhood. It will be a destination expanding of choice for seniors requiring first class residential care, as well as being a major hub for employment opportunities. community of Armstrong Creek, near Geelong. 14
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The new design is at the forefront of aged care development and innovation. Our client envisioned a contemporary, ‘club like’ feel to the interiors. This aesthetic, combined with an enticing range of services on offer, consistently responds to an increasingly demanding, well-educated clientele.
Photography | Kane Jarrod
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Assisi Aged Care LOCATION Rosanna, Victoria FACILITY TYPE Residential aged care TRADITIONAL LAND Wurundjeri
The Assisi Centre’s residential aged care facility is located on the grounds of the heritage-listed Sisters of Mercy Convent.
The facility is situated on a large, elevated site in Rosanna, Melbourne, and primarily serves a community of Italian heritage. To meet projected demand, we have developed a multi-stage, ageing-in-place master plan that integrates retirement living with Residential Aged Care (RAC) accommodation. This approach offers seniors greater choice and flexible housing options in north eastern Melbourne. The development will include retirement living apartments in three new buildings. The historically significant Convent building will be retrofitted, and a retirement community hub with cultural and lifestyle amenities will be established.
Visualisations | Baldasso Cortese 16
Aged Care Spaces
Calvary Strzlecki House LOCATION Mirboo North, Victoria FACILITY TYPE Residential aged care TRADITIONAL LAND Gunaikurnai
60 bed residence in Mirboo North was Calvary Health The formerly a bush nursing hospital, which Care’s residential opened in 1938. worked closely with Calvary to aged care facility We undertake significant improvements throughout the facility. The works included the addition of 17 private, ensuited is located in bedrooms and extensive, internal refurbishments to shared facilities and the beautiful, staff accommodation. rolling Strzelecki Careful programming and cost control with Calvary and the builder ensured that Ranges of the facility remained fully operational during the redevelopment. At all times, Southern the comfort and safety of residents and staff were maintained. Gippsland. The expanded Mirboo North facility provides the local communities with a larger, reinvigorated aged care destination. It also bolsters Calvary’s on-going campaign to uplift its extensive property portfolio.
Photography | Baldasso Cortese 17
Aged Care Spaces
Rumbalara Elder Care Hub LOCATION Shepparton, Victoria FACILITY TYPE Residential care + ILUs TRADITIONAL LAND Yorta Yorta
Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative’s multigenerational care complex includes a community centre, 19 independent living units and respite housing.
The 30-bed, Elder care facility forms a component of the overall $55M master planned complex for Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-Operative. The building caters for low, high and dementia care for Aboriginal Elders. Our focus on working with the community was reflected in our sensitive material choices and spatial relationships. The facility now provides Victorian regional indigenous communities with a dedicated accommodation that was not previously available. Throughout the construction phase, the project offered meaningful employment and job training opportunities for local Indigenous people.
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The briefing and design stages involved rigorous liaison with the client group, to ensure our approach and materiality acknowledged and respected the importance of Country.
Photography | Kane Jarrod 19
Aged Care Spaces
Our approach to Aged Care design
Tailored but grounded.
While every project is a tailored and unique response to community, heritage, Country, site and vision, our care spaces are grounded in a proven set of design principles, including: •
Appropriate sense of spaces that invigorates users and promotes resonance
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Creative use of space and materiality to spark moments of joy
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Environmentally sensitive design that addresses climate, light, planting, and sustainable materials
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Care spaces that reflect a deep understanding of our client’s individual and unique systems
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Narratives or storytelling based on the client’s history and values
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Optimised site orientation to make use of natural features and climate
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Smart incorporation of technology
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Universal accessibility
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Thank you. Level 1, 103 Oxford Street, Yálla-birr-ang, Collingwood VIC 3066 83a Little Malop Street, Djiling, Geelong VIC 3220 (D) + 61 3 9090 2604 studio@bcarchitects.com.au www.bcarchitects.com.au ABN: 71 445 953 215 Registered Architect, VIC #50201