Good News Lutheran College is located in Tarneit, in the main western growth corridor for Melbourne, on the fringe of the Werribee Precinct. It is a rapidly growing school offering P-12 education. In 2012 the College acquired the adjacent site to expand with a long term projected enrolment of 1511 students.
Stage 6A is a purpose built Middle Years 7-9 building and provides the learning community base for students in those years. The site Masterplan has been developed to achieve a Primary Precinct and a Secondary Precinct. The Secondary Precinct is developed with buildings clustered around a combination of passive and active outdoor recreation spaces. The Stage 6A Building presents directly onto the secondary central courtyard. The Building is a two-storey building with 11 General Learning Areas, Collaborative Learning Spaces, Discussion Areas, a large central Agora, Staff Workspaces and associated amenities.
In many respects, Good News Lutheran College encapsulates the energy and optimism of the rapidly growing residential areas around it. The College wishes to present itself as a contemporary engaged learning institution and therefore, this Building has been designed to reflect that aspiration. The architectural language is lively, energetic and with playful decorative elements. The hexagon was adopted as a symbol of this lively engagement and used throughout the Building in its façade, lighting treatment and pressed metal balustrades, pinboard treatment, window detailing and internal decorative elements.
The loose reference to honeycomb suggests the hive of activity of students using and enjoying the space. The College wanted a combination of defined Learning Areas and Flexible Breakout Spaces. Through the provision of large sliding doors between adjacent Classrooms and adjacent Breakout Spaces great fluidity of space can be achieved.
The large void over the Agora provides for great visual connectedness, however, tucked under the Undercroft of the first-storey are also intimate Study Nooks and Learning Areas. With a large raised central lantern roof, the Building enjoys abundant natural light.
As the College’s values are to provide a Christ centered education for all children, an LED lit coloured glass cross forms an integral part of the Main Building Entry. An extended entry canopy and adjacent cantilevered covered ways connect this Building seamlessly to the remainder of the College. The precast panel with the hexagon motive of the Main Entry provides a visual interest and graphic connectedness to this detail throughout the Building. The Year 7-9 students have come to love this Building as the focus for their school life.
Material Used :
1. Colorbond – General Window Frame & Gymnasium Steel – Contemporary Collection
2. Dulux – Walls, Doors and Windows –Wash and Wear Collection
3. PGH Bricks – Face Bricks – PGH Bricks&Austral Bricks
4. Laminex – Joinery carcass‘, doors and kickplates, Benchtops, overhead cupboards and shelves – Colour Collection
5. Interface – Carpet– Aerial Colletion
6. Armstrong Flooring – Skirting –CX Formulation
7. Johnson Tiles – Canteen Kitchen, Chower Cubicles and Cleaner’s Splashback – Glazed Brickwork
8. Autex – Fabric Pinboards – Quietspace Acoustic
