On Friday, April 11, the Randwick Health & Innovation District came to life through the Heart of Randwick Creative Night - a pilot place activation initiative designed to connect people, institutions, and public spaces through a shared community cultural experience. The pilot program aimed to support the evolution of the Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct (RHIP) into a more connected, people-centered place. Over its six-hour duration, the streets - typically associated with clinical routines and institutional flow – became, for the first time, spaces for cultural activity, public interaction, and creative exploration.
A collaboration and co-production between Reactivate Consulting and the Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct, Heart of Randwick Creative Night was a free community festival held from 3–9 pm, designed to activate public spaces across the precinct. The event explored how creative, low-barrier activations can transform precincts into spaces that are more welcoming, inclusive, and socially connected.
Heart of Randwick Creative Night featured a curated program of temporary activations across key locations in the precinct, including cultural workshops (Gujaga Foundation, NIDA Open, Handy with scissors, Black Dog Institute, Nadia Odlum) live music performances (Guitarist - Cameron Jones, Rem & The Starshine), and a bustling night market Cambridge Markets Sydney) - each designed to foster connection and exploration outside traditional institutional settings. The approach focused on strategic placemaking - utilising temporary, participatory interventions to test ideas, gather insights, and build momentum toward a longer-term cultural vision for the precinct.
The goals of the project included activating and humanising transitional and underutilised spaces within the precinct, strengthening the community’s connection to place, supporting partnerships across health, research, education, and creative sectors, testing the capability of several precinct spaces and piloting engagement strategies for future activations. Heart of Randwick Creative Night served both as a celebration and a prototype - an invitation to imagine how health infrastructure can serve as more than a site of care but also a space of connection.
Initial feedback from participants and stakeholders emphasised the value of creating space for public life within health settings. The activation attracted a diverse mix of individuals - from hospital staff and researchers to local residents and visitors - many of whom expressed curiosity and enthusiasm at experiencing the precinct in a new way. This response reinforces a broader principle in placemaking: that even modest shifts in programming and spatial use can profoundly influence how people relate to place.
As RHIP continues to grow, there is an opportunity to shape not only its physical form but also its social and cultural dimensions. Heart of Randwick Creative Night marked an important early step in this process - demonstrating how strategic placemaking can contribute to transforming health precincts into spaces that feel open, connected, and reflective of the communities they serve.
The Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct (RHIP) is one of Sydney’s most ambitious health and research collaborations. Anchored by the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney Children’s Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Women, and UNSW Sydney, the precinct represents a convergence of care, science, learning, and innovation. With significant infrastructure investment underway, the precinct is poised for growth - not just in scale, but also in its public presence and civic role. The challenge is to ensure that as the precinct grows, it becomes more accessible, legible, and engaging for the people who move through it every day - patients, staff, students, families, and the broader community.
