Commercial and industrial
Childcare and medical centre design
Two building types where a body of design standards sets the layout before the planning controls get a say.
Most commercial design starts with the planning envelope and works inwards. These two start from the inside: the number of places or practitioners sets the room schedule, the room schedule sets the floor area, and only then does the question of whether it fits the site arise.
Which means the first conversation is about the operating model, not the building.
Early education centres
A childcare centre is designed around its licensed capacity. The number of places, and their age mix, drives unencumbered indoor and outdoor area, the number and size of rooms, cot and sleep provision, nappy change and toileting, staff amenities, and the kitchen. Get the room schedule wrong and the licence doesn't follow the building.
Alongside that, the planning assessment is dominated by the things neighbours object to and councils condition:
- Acoustics — outdoor play noise is the single most common ground of objection, and an acoustic report is effectively standard
- Traffic and parking — drop-off and pick-up concentrate into two short peaks, and the DCP rate rarely tells the whole story
- Solar access and shading to the outdoor play space
- Overlooking between the play space and neighbouring private open space
- Hours of operation, and the interface with residential land
Permissibility is the first gate as with any commercial use, and a State policy may permit a centre where the LEP does not. See change of use for how that is established.
Medical centres and GP clinics
The RACGP publishes room-sizing guidance in its General Practice Business Toolkit, and it is the sensible starting point for a fit-out. These are the figures it actually states:
| Space | RACGP guide area | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Consulting room | 12–16 m² each | At least one per clinical team member — each GP and practice nurse. |
| Treatment room | ≈ 7 m² (2.5 × 3.0 m) | Dressings, observations, minor and emergency treatment. |
| Procedure room | ≈ 16 m² (3.5 × 4.5 m) | Minor procedures. Fits a height-adjustable table, surgical trolley and chairs. |
| Waiting area | ≈ 2 m² per chair | Around six chairs per clinical team member; at least 1 m between facing seats. |
| Reception and admin | ≈ 10 m² per staff member | Plus space for equipment, files and waste. |
Source: RACGP General Practice Business Toolkit, Module 2 — Layout. These are guidance figures, not a code.
A brief that says "treatment room, allow 16–20 m²" is describing a procedure room. The RACGP treatment-room figure is about 7 m²; the procedure-room figure is about 16 m². Collapsing the two is the most common error in a medical fit-out brief, and it either wastes 9 m² of tenancy or leaves a procedure room that can't take an operating table.
Beyond the room schedule, the layout is driven by acoustic privacy between consulting rooms, hand hygiene provision, the clean/dirty flow through the sterilising area, and accessible circulation. We work to an STC 45 target between clinical rooms and to corridors, with partitions full height to slab and no untreated service penetrations — that is our design target for speech privacy, not an RACGP or NCC figure. The RACGP says "design soundproof rooms" and its accreditation criterion requires consultation spaces to permit privacy and confidentiality; neither states a number.
The same distinction applies to the two-sink clean/dirty procedure room layout and hands-free tapware. Both are infection-control good practice and both support the RACGP's accreditation criteria — neither is something the RACGP publishes as a requirement. We keep the two clearly separated in a client brief, because a document that says "the RACGP requires" something it doesn't is a document that will eventually embarrass someone.
The binding layer is different again: the National Construction Code, AS 1428.1 and disability access law, and the LEP and DCP for the land use approval. A fit-out designed to the RACGP guidance supports accreditation; the practice is assessed separately and the fit-out doesn't guarantee the outcome.
The 5th edition Standards are current, a 6th edition is in development, and an ACSQHC advisory effective 1 November 2025 changed requirements for new practices registering for accreditation. Verify against the in-force Standards before relying on an indicator for a live project.
What we do
Take the operating model — places and age mix, or practitioners and services — and turn it into a room schedule, then a layout, then an application. Coordinate the acoustic, traffic and access input the assessment will need, and document the fit-out for construction.
Where the project is a change of use into an existing tenancy, the permissibility work comes first and it is not a formality. See change of use.
Fee proposals are scoped per project.
Planning a centre or a clinic?
Send us the site or the tenancy and the operating model. Both drive the layout.