Baldasso Cortese

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke

OUR LADY OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS PRIMARY SCHOOL

Baldasso Cortese Architects

PROJECT ARCHITECT
David Choate, Nick Nackovski

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Urban Initiatives, Land Design Partnership

SERVICE ENGINEERS
Maccormack Associates, Clements

EDUCATIONAL SPECIALIST
Hal Cutting

TECHNICIAN
Konrad Schaller, Albert Picone

BUILDERS
2 Construct, Nicol Group, Magellan Projects

STRUCTURE /CIVIL/ GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER
Cardno

GRADUATE ARCHITECT
Vanessa Wong

GRAPHIC PRESENTATION
Gabriella Muto

BUILDING SURVEYOR
Mckenzie Group

DESIGN TEAM
Devkrishna Mistry, Loris Rebeschini, Hannes Macnamara

INTERIOR DESIGNER
Anastasia Malishev

CLIENT
Our Lady Of The Southern Cross Primary School/ Catholic Education Office

DESIGN DIRECTOR
Steven Cortese

PHOTOGRAPHS
Peter Clarke

YEAR
2014

LOCATION
Taylors Hill , Australia

CATEGORY
Elementary , Middle School

Text description provided by architect.

M aster planned in 2007 for a long term enrolment of 450 students, the school has been designed as 3 Learning Communities, each to accommodate 150 multi-age students from Prep –Y6.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke

The school was completed in 5 stages starting with Learning Community 1; Administration; and the BER funded Multi-Purpose Hall and Learning community 2. Learning Community 3 together with the Hall extension was the final stage of development at Our Lady of the Southern Cross.

It was clear at the outset that this school was going to be different from all others with the focus to move completely away from formal classrooms to a range of spaces for different activities and learning styles in a multi-age environment.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke

Personalised learning, peer-to-peer collaborative learning and team teaching all influenced the architectural design of physical learning spaces.

The embedding of technology in the learning space – smart boards, networked and wireless connection to computers hand held devices adds to the flexibility demanded by the curriculum.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke

Students are grouped “Stage not Age” increasing engagement, they are taught to take increased responsibility for their learning. The teacher as a facilitator and working together with other teachers require far more planning and organization time.

A large localized work area, surrounded by all their resources / photocopying needs has been provided. A raised play within the main learning area caters for quieter more tactile activities or story time.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke

Conference and meeting rooms are available for small group discussion, reading recovery or for staff use.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross has been designed without a formal Library. The library functionality has been dispersed between the 3 learning communities allowing the library resources to be directly accessible to the students where they need it.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke

Each learning community has a science space developed which incorporates generous bench and sink areas at varying heights and an island bench, cooktop and storage space.

A second wet area has been provided for Art and Construction with direct access off the learning space.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke

The evolution of the master plan has resulted in larger footprint for successive learning spaces, particular attention in the design was given to increased natural light and ventilation and acoustic treabackground-color: rgba(177, 190, 179, 1)tment.

The raised roof and electronically operable windows allow natural light and ventilation to penetrate the centre of the building. Acoustically, a high degree of sound insulation, angled walls and sound absorbent materials ensure the minimum of disruption in the learning space.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
© Peter Clarke
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
Diagram

Internal spaces lead directly to landscaped outside learning areas protected by large covered eaves and provided with shade trees and seating.


Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
Master Plan
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
Location


Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
Section
Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School
Section

Baldasso Cortese
T +61 3 94177555
Baldasso Cortese
Level 1/103 Oxford St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia