PEGS Junior Boys School

PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings

PEGS JUNIOR BOYS SCHOOL

McBride Charles Ryan

ARCHITECTS
McBride Charles Ryan

AREA
1650.0 sqm

LOCATION
Melbourne VIC, Australia

CATEGORY
Schools

PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings

Text description provided by architect.

Penleigh and Essendon Junior Boys School began in an Italianate mansion on windy hill, opposite the Essendon Footy Club. This building is exceptional in a residential area where Federation housing dominates.

Slowly the school has accumulated much of the property in the block bounded by Nicholson, Raleigh, Napier & Fletcher Streets. Many of the ‘houses’ are now occupied by the school.

PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings
PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings

This new project, a two story year 5 & 6 block with 3 classrooms above and below, is an important addition to the school and public interface to Nicholson Street.

McBride Charles Ryan wanted this building to acknowledge and exploit its unusual urban condition. All wanted this building to be a unique acknowledgment of an important threshold stage in the boy’s school life.

PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings
PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings

All wanted more than just good accommodation, and McBride Charles Ryan wanted a building of the imagination.

This proposal takes just the silhouette of a Federation Home, it is up-scaled, extruded and sliced.

PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings
PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings

The front of the building might be described perhaps as a haunted house, the centre (the extrusion) is vaguely a Shinto Shrine, the rear (which interfaces with the schools ovals), if you squint - The Big Top.

The planning is arranged so as to provide northern courtyards to the ground floor classrooms, upstairs the corridor is switched to reduce overlooking to the adjacent neighbor.

The ground floor Grade 5 classrooms have rich deep colors and an earthy ambience.

PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings
PEGS Junior Boys School
Courtesy of mcbride charles ryan / john gollings

The first floor is ethereal. With more than a nod to Utzons Bagsvaerd Church the complex silhouette is smoothed to a cloud like shape. 

The extruded chimney a source of light and a means of naturally ventilating the classroom space.


PEGS Junior Boys School
Plan
PEGS Junior Boys School
Plan

PEGS Junior Boys School
Section