Heritage Building Update – An Insight into Educational Architecture

Contract winning and Head Architect John Lee, Co-Director McGlashan Everist Pty Ltd Architects, answers questions relating to the importance of carefully developed architectural decisions in the education space, and how these choices will benefit the Star of the Sea College community with the soon to be completed first stage of the Masterplan, The Heritage Project.

Why is architecture so important in an educational setting? New learning environments should be flexible, to offer multiple possibilities of arrangements supported by sophisticated time management. They should be clustered, as opposed to a juxtaposition of classrooms, to allow for informal spaces, intermediate territories that induce group work and broaden the student-teacher relationship with the studentstudent relationship for more casual conversations and they should include reflective places. Dividing up the school space into a hierarchy of smaller clusters, introducing an intermediate level between the classroom and the whole school, and supporting teamteaching can achieve this. New learning environments should have a common-core, an ‘informal meeting place’ where the whole or parts of the school can gather in various ways and groups like a ‘melting-pot’. And they should promote connectivity; the school should be part of a wider network, virtually and physically. The learning setting is intrinsically linked to student comfort and motivation as it involves fundamental characteristics such as fresh air, acoustic quality, thermal and lighting levels, as well as decorative aspects such as colour and material finishes that are integral to the occupants’ well-being and capability and will determine the student’s experience. That is why good architecture is so important. Tell us what you like most about your work in education? The opportunity to improve the lives and learning opportunities of those who are the future of our world.

What is your favourite part of the architecture process? As much as I enjoy all parts of the process, and they are all important, in respect of our work in education the master plan and the subsequent occupancy by the students are the most exciting and fulfilling. The aim of a master plan is to establish a clear direction for future planning, development and management of a school’s buildings and landscape. The aspirations in a master plan should represent a transformation of a school into a learning community to support the skills development of global citizens. What are the challenges of working on a Heritage building? Historical context allows engagement with the best of the past while looking towards tomorrow.

Heritage buildings can bring deep understanding and cohesiveness to a campus. Adaptive re-use can bring unexpected and exciting architectural solutions and offer new learning opportunities. The challenge is to identify and retain the elements that are essential to the essence of the Heritage building, to enable it to still be read when significant change is made so that the story of the building and its history remain alive, whilst providing modern amenity and purpose. What is your favourite space that you have created in The Heritage Project? It will probably be the creation of ‘no space’. That is the portico space that has been carved out of the base of one of the parts of the Heritage Wing. This new space enables the visual and physical connection of the eastern and western halves of the campus through the architectural gesture of creative demolition.

For the first time since the 1930s, everyone will be able to see from one side of the campus to the other and to access the whole campus at ground level without having to pass through a building and to climb and descend steps. The portico leads to a new vertical circulation hub with rationalised floor levels within the Heritage Wing. It will be truly liberating for all. Do you have any words of advice for Star students who are considering a career in architecture?

Do it. The world needs you. Women have become powerful agents of change in a profession that used to be dominated by males. Even if you don’t continue with a career in architecture, an architectural education will change the way you see and understand and might change the world. It should be compulsory.

FIND OUT MORE

If you have any questions or comments about The Heritage Project, please contact us on the dedicated project email heritageproject@starmelb.catholic.edu.au or visit our website www.starmelb.catholic.edu.au.