Hartwell Primary School

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Hartwell Primary School, a two storey brick building of 9 classrooms, was built in 1922. The school has been successfully modernised with a 2 storey modernisation and expansion solution, designed to provide contemporary learning, administrative spaces and outdoor learning areas which maximized play area on a tight site.

Project Details

Architects
Baldasso Cortese P/L Architects

Address
Milverton Street, Camberwell, VIC 3124

Submitter
Hal Cutting

Cost
$6.3 million + $2.3m BER

Photographer
Robert Hamer, Robert Hamer Photography & Jackie Winkleman

Project Overview

Hartwell Primary School is set on a small site of 1.2Ha in Camberwell. Originally designed for 200 students, it consisted of the original two storey school, separate single storey 1970’s brick Library and Art Craft buildings, a recent Multipurpose Hall and 13 relocatable classrooms spread across the site.

The original 2 storey brick building, old and tired, with a traditional classroom layout was no longer supportive of the school’s pedagogical approach. With 7 different levels to contend with throughout both floors, no disabled access, a need to overhaul the whole of the electrical and IT infrastructure and with leaking roofs, it was time for an upgrade.

The school had a clear sense of purpose when master planning began in 2008 – to provide contemporary learning spaces to support the schools’ constructivist pedagogy.

An Educational Specification was developed around this goal through a series of workshops, meetings and presentations. The key components of the Ed Spec were:

  • Development of four distinct Learning Communities
  • Each Learning Community to be self-sufficient
  • Each Learning Community to have access to a variety of different types of spaces
  • Provision of outdoor learning areas to each Learning Community