Facts & figures
- 21,500 m² total building area
- 8 levels
- 25 bookable student study areas
- 11 simulation rooms
- 4 lecture theatres
- 3 levels of library facilities
- 12 seminar rooms
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Susan Wakil Health Building
World class facilities for medical and health education
Our new Susan Wakil Health Building is a purpose-built facility for medicine and health disciplines.
Our state-of-the-art Susan Wakil Health Building brings together multiple health disciplines to work out of the same precinct. Working alongside each other in this new facility creates unique inter-professional learning programs and multi-disciplinary research opportunities. It places our students and staff at the forefront of health innovation, learning and policy.
Having delivered public hospitals, cancer centres, university hospitals and other educational institutions throughout the UK and Australia, Laing O'Rourke was engaged to utilise its wealth of global experience to deliver the main works for this state-of-the-art facility. Laing O’Rourke also helped deliver a highly sought-after Platinum Sustainability Rating, exceeding the Silver rating we were commissioned to deliver.
Designed by Billard Leece Partnership and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and in alignment with an activity based working strategy for the workplace co-created with Veldhoen + Company, this building is a place of innovation, learning and collaboration. Spread over eight floors with views across the city, its facilities include:
- state-of-the-art clinical simulation teaching spaces,
- brand-new human CT scanner and low-field MRI machine,
- formal and informal learning and contemporary research facilities,
- a multi-service clinic serving research, teaching, industry and community outreach functions,
- activity-based workspaces including a mix of open plan workstations, quiet spaces and social spaces designed to support different ways of working,
- a 350-seat lecture theatre, and
- a rehabilitation gym.
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A focus on activity and movement, social equity and the utilisation of the Wingara Mura design principles have been key priorities in the building’s design, with features such as the Yooroang Garang academic space (a dedicated space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to connect and work together), gender neutral facilities and the Upper Wakil Garden (a place of respite at the heart of the building) all playing a part.
Located on our Camperdown/Darlington campus, students and researchers leverage the benefits of the proximity of our location adjacent to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and other leading medical institutions.
The building houses Sydney Nursing School and the Sydney School of Health Sciences, along with the Central Clinical School and components of the Faculty of Medicine and Health.
Facility highlights
- Contemporary, multi-use simulation spaces such as rehabilitation and treatment rooms and learning studios designed to support the teaching of simulated clinical scenarios and problem-based learning for students.
- Large collaborative teaching space with integrated audio-visual facilities that allows the integration of clinical practice, practical learning and case studies for students studying in the disciplines of physiotherapy and exercise and sports science.
- A suite of specialist medical imaging spaces providing opportunities for clinical skill development and simulated learning environments for students studying in the discipline of Medical Imaging Science.
- These spaces feature state-of-the-art equipment ranging from x-ray machines, MRI machines and CT scanners, to highly sophisticated cardiac units and ultrasound machines.
- As of Semester 1, 2025, students from selected courses will have the opportunity to use our brand-new human CT scanner and low-field MRI machine.
- The CT scanner includes hardware and sophisticated software for analysing human cases to diagnose and monitor disease. It has dual energy (spectral) capability, providing additional information about diseases that are not possible with a standard CT.
- The low-field MRI machine is portable and designed for neurological imaging.
- Flexible and virtual clinical studio spaces to support practical teaching across a range of health disciplines.
- Activities of Daily Living (ADL) space is where occupational therapy students learn in an environment that can simulate a range of domestic, community or workplace scenarios.
- The nursing clinical simulation laboratories provide nursing students with a safe environment to develop their confidence and clinical nursing schools. Designed to look and feel like a real hospital setting, the labs are equipped with medium and high fidelity manikins that are prepared to simulate real patients and are based on authentic patient scenarios with their own charts and specific patient care.
- Multi-service speech clinic that provide clinical services to the public and support the development of students through clinical placement.
- There is also a voice analysis faculty, fully equipped for simultaneous visual imaging, respiratory, laryngeal and acoustic measurement.
- The new building includes seven research gyms and a contemporary simulation studio gym for teaching.
- The stimulation studio gym features specialised exercise equipment, state-of-the-art cameras and force plates to support research-led teaching in the discipline of exercise and sports science
- A purpose-built lab with a purpose-built climate chamber. Environmental parameters can be precisely controlled making it an ideal space for research and teaching in areas across physiology, public health, and exercise and sports sciences.
- A multi-level library offering a range of learning spaces, including individual study spaces, group study rooms, a computer lab and training room, and access to a high-use print collection.
- CreateSpace is a technology-rich engagement and collaborative learning space featuring future-focused technologies including VR, AR, 3D printers, and podcast and recording equipment with library staff there to assist.
- Connect with library staff through an engaging program of events and training activities.
Learn more about the new Susan Wakil Health Building Library.