Glenn Murcutt and Angelo Candalepas will design a new Manly headquarters for Royal Far West that aims to boost the charity's financial base as well as giving it flexibility to respond to the growing needs for specialised health services for children in regional Australia.

Asking two of Australia's best-known architects to redesign its 5000-square-metre site was a strategy by the 95-year-old organisation to come up with a building that would last and also offer something “unexpected and surprising” to the local community, Mr Candalepas said.