Moreton Bay College, Manly West

Year 6 Facilities

Description:

Moreton Bay College needed to upgrade its Year 6 facilities to provide a better learning environment to its students, and support new ways of teaching and learning. What was not clear, however, was how to do this with the current layout. We started by adopting a collaborative approach, commencing with comprehensive discussion with the Heads of Learning, and the Business Manager at the school. This ensured a viable vision for the project, where further detailed feedback from the teachers and students of the facilities completed the brief. These insights became the basis of a design for collaborative facilities, making physical and visual connection between learning spaces where we took advantage of the high ceilings to create a new additional shared zones to compliment the learning areas. This revitalisation allowed better connection between classes and the creation of collaborative art and teachers’ zones on the ground level to each classroom. The net result was a more flexible, connected and vibrant learning environment. The new connections created opportunities for spontaneous interaction between students and staff of different classes, resulting in prolonging the useful life of the buildings. The design’s use of shared zones and visual connections created a welcoming atmosphere and a more harmonious learning precinct.

Design Team:

Bruno Alahakone
Kelly Nortje
Cassandra Liddle
Stirling Blacket

Builder:

Daniel Nalder