Changing Places – Morrow Street Rest Centre

This new two storey, four bedroom family home is to be sited on a vacant lot in central Gundagai. The site is the Morrow Street Rest Centre, Wagga Wagga. The brief was to provide a fully accessible public bathroom with change table and hoist for people with severe or profound disability.

The Changing Places concept was developed in the UK in 2006 and became a British Standard in 2009. Today there are over 970 accredited Changing Places facilities in the UK and over 20 Changing Places operating in Australia. The Changing Places model has been implemented by the Wagga Wagga City Council in the form of the ‘Marveloo’, a mobile Changing Places facility and also through the redevelopment of the Morrow Street Rest Centre.

Changing Places is considered a best practice example of universal design principles, with requirements additional and separate to AS1428.1. Along with meeting requirements to ensure Changing Places accreditation, we also selected the colour and materials palette. The colour palette consists of mint green, cool grey and white  to provide a refreshing, clean aesthetic.

The success of Changing Places has resulted in improved accessibility and enhanced social inclusion of people with a disability in the local community.