Cranbrook Junior School

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Tzannes Associates have worked closely in collaboration with the Cranbrook School to design a school that supports the school’s teaching philosophy and is integrated with its site.

Project Details

Architects
Peter Valencic – Project Directors Alec Tzannes, Phillip Rossington

Address
Dangar Precinct Kent Road Rose Bay, NSW 2029 Australia

Submitter
Tzannes Associates

Cost
Confidential

Photographer
Smin Wood, Richard Glover

Project Overview

Tzannes Associates were engaged by Cranbrook School to design their new Junior School on their Rose Bay Campus.


Key factors in the design of the school have been the schools interest in innovative teaching practices, the development of ‘school in a garden’ with a defined ‘village square’, architectural forms that respond to the particular constraints and opportunities of the site and a strategy of detailing and material selection that respond to the schools demands for quality and desire to build for the long term.


We have collaborated closely with Cranbrook to support their ambition for innovative teaching practices, particularly the ideas of Reggio Emilia and the principle that the environment is the third teacher. We have created a network of varied spaces providing many diverse, interrelated internal and external teaching spaces, all with a strong connection to nature and the outdoors.


The school is centred around one larger ‘village square’ loosely made up of an overlapping network of smaller spaces. Key public activities are grouped around the square, activating it and displaying the schools creative aspects.


We developed a built form and architectural language for the school that is appropriate to its place and its use. Diverse uses are integrated through a monumental colonnade to the south, responding to the scale of the oval whilst lower scale elements are located adjacent to the surrounding residential neighbourhood.


Materials have been selected and details developed to support the school’s ambition for buildings that will be retained for a long time and in response to the particular cost constraints of the project.