Architecture architecture have delivered a ‘Community Hub’ for Brandon Park Primary School, celebrating connection, learning and recreation. The new facilities are designed to accommodate a range of school and community uses, while supporting the school’s culture and pedagogy.
The new Community Hub contains a gymnasium, music room, canteen and staff rooms. The facility, strategically located to address both the sports oval and the existing school buildings, mediates civic presence and human scale.
Externally, the building is anchored by an earthy base of ivory brick and warm timbers. The heft of the gymnasium is further grounded by a eucalypt-green veranda, perched on a colonnade of pink columns: a shady arbour reminiscent of a flowering gum. Here, alcoves provide informal seating for groups and individuals, while deciduous climbers trained on tension wires provide shade and screening.
The building’s entrance, changeroom facilities and canteen are all sheltered beneath this protective arbour, accessed via a landscaped plaza, while the music room and adjoining amphitheatre are tucked to one side, offering an intimate outdoor performance space.
Inside, the gymnasium’s large timber trusses and lofty daylighting lend drama and occasion to sports games and school gatherings, while generous corner windows establish connections to the sports oval and campus. At dusk, the gymnasium’s translucent crown becomes a softly glowing beacon, welcoming visitors while celebrating the school’s presence within the community.
Team:
Architects: Architecture architecture
Collaborators: ThomsonAdsett and On-Paper
Construction: Newton Manor Constructions
Landscape: Outlines Landscape Architecture
Photographer: Tom Ross
Materials Used:
Facade cladding: Danpatherm, Danpal
Spandek, Lysaght
Silvertop Ash, Radial Timbers
Flooring: ASF PR3 Floor System, Nellakir
Doors: Series 400 and 424, Architectural Window Systems (AWS)
Windows: Series 400 and 424, Architectural Window Systems (AWS)
Interior lighting: High bay suspended light, Efficient Lighting Systems (ELS)
