Bice Building
Conserving and adapting a 1920s building
The transformed Bice Building reveals, embraces, and preserves the essence and fabric of a significant 1920s building, simultaneously creating an engaging, inclusive, and sustainable workplace for a creative, digitally oriented audience.
Purcell, working as part of the HASSELL/baukultur led design team, provided heritage consultancy services for the refurbishment of the Bice Building. Extensive works include prioritized external conservation, introduction of new façade treatments and contemporary cold-shell fit out of the former hospital ancillary building, complementing, and preserving its key heritage attributes.
Reviving heritage with purposeful adaptation
Attributed to architect George Gavin Lawson and completed in 1927, the prominent Edwardian Classical Free style building’s original purpose was to house core and ancillary hospital functions: its integrity was compromised by previous alterations, principally in the late 1950s and 1980s, prior to heritage listing.
Now forming part of the gateway to Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen development, the Bice Building is the last of the buildings conceived in the 1921-22 Royal Adelaide Hospital masterplan to be fully refurbished as part of the heritage precinct.
The design strategy focused on carefully distinguishing retained, altered, and new elements in a building that had undergone major internal changes. Understanding its history and existing limitations helped identify opportunities for sympathetic upgrades, remedy past alterations, and reintroduce significant original features—without major changes to the layout.
Site visits, a dilapidation survey, and expert heritage advice informed a layout suited to future tech tenants while respecting and upgrading the heritage base-building.
Purcell supported planning consent through an impact assessment, then continued working with the design team to meet planning conditions and prepare documentation for base-building and heritage repair works.
The project successfully managed remote consultant coordination during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, using innovative remote quality and technical reviews to support tender and construction when site access was restricted.
It preserves the Bice Building’s heritage while supporting traditional trades and achieving a 6-Star Green Star rating—proving that heritage buildings can meet modern environmental standards.
Extensive conservation works included facade repair and restoration, metal and timber window reinstatement using salvaged elements, and renewal of historic finishes, joinery, and decorative features. Thermal mass from existing brick walls and concrete floors supports indoor comfort, complemented by new services and access to original open-air balconies—restored with historically accurate balustrades and discreet safety barriers.
At level one, the most intact internal areas retain the 1920s aesthetic, subtly contrasting with the contemporary fit-out.
Equitable access to facilities—workspaces, breakout areas, kitchenettes, and amenities—across all levels supports the Bice Building’s inclusive design.
The team focused on optimising internal layouts, removing unsympathetic alterations, and reinstating key architectural elements to ensure a successful adaptive reuse. The exterior was conserved or enhanced through restoration of original details and thoughtful contemporary interventions.
The result is a heritage-preserved, innovative, and accessible workspace that fits seamlessly into the evolving Lot Fourteen precinct.
Team
- Tracey Skovronek Managing Director
- Alistair Ravenscroft Associate Partner
Details
- Client HASSELL (for Renewal SA)
- Team Melbourne Studio
- Location Kaurna Country, Adelaide
- Country Australia
- Photography Baukultur
Awards
- MIPIM Asia Awards: Best Refurbished Building Silver 2022
- SA Architecture Awards: David Sanders Award for Heritage Won 2022
