Camberwell High School – Enterprise Centre

The challenge was to develop a centre to replace a set of re-locatable classrooms and to serve as a strong tangible symbol of the School’s commitment to a learning landscape characterised by deep learning, monitoring learning, negotiation, collaboration and differentiation and to integrate it with the existing buildings on a compact site.

Project Details

Architects
Hayball

Award
Commendation Category 2: New Construction Major Facility

Address
Prospect Hill Road Canterbury Melbourne, Victoria 3126

Submitter
Hayball

Cost
3.48M

Photographer
Dianna Snape

Project Overview

The Enterprise Centre marks a major development in learning and teaching at Camberwell High School. Since 2010 the CHS community has embraced the challenge of developing a shared vision for learning that prepares students for a complex, globalised, post-industrial world.

The project was intended to redefine the educational model and act as a stimulus for future pedagogical development at the school and the planning process has impacted positively on the School in assisting to define and articulate their education vision.

The challenge was to develop a centre to replace a set of re-locatable classrooms and to serve as a strong tangible symbol of the School’s commitment to a learning landscape characterised by deep learning, monitoring learning, negotiation, collaboration and differentiation and to integrate it with the existing buildings on a compact site.

It is the result of a committed effort and a highly collaborative process that brought together the strengths of students, educators, designers and planners and derived its guiding principles from a vision for learning.

Collaboration between the School, the education consultant and the design team was critical in transferring pedagogy into planning. This involved several months of high-level meetings with key staff, workshops with staff and students, presentations with the School Council and Skype link-ups to develop concepts planning workshops within the design team.

Of special significance were the School workshops. These were interactive sessions with staff and students applying the CEFPI “Learning Furniture” collateral to debate, articulate and challenge the learning settings. Fifty students were involved in a workshop to review possibilities, discuss the brief and present initial concepts. The demanding workshop was followed by the students breaking into groups to prepare their learning settings and then present them to the full audience.

Students flow through the environment choosing approaches and settings which will best support their learning. As a student remarked, “It is a new way of thinking about learning”.

The result is a design based on deep education research and evolving from intense collaboration and development.

Juries Comments

“The second project receiving a commendation was Camberwell High School Enterprise Centre in Victoria.

Following a rigorous planning and development phase the school and the design team established a set of guiding design principles translating the established pedagogies into planned education facility provision.

The resulting Centre features a blend of indoor and outdoor learning environments enhanced by the linking of the interior furniture layouts and the external landscaping.

The Enterprise Centre was intended to act as a catalyst in redefining the current educational model and as a stimulus for future pedagogical development at the school. It has exceeded all the school community’s expectations.

Congratulations to Hayball Architects, Julia Atkin and Camberwell High School.”