St Peter’s College – Sr Rosemary Graham Building

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The St Peter’s College “Rosemary Graham Wing” reflects a new direction for the school and a collective reconsideration of their model of teaching and learning. In working collaboratively with the school staff Hayball has co-created a model of contemporary education supporting learning that is interdisciplinary, inquiry based and student centered.

Project Details

Architects
Hayball

Address
55 MacKillop Way Cranbourne East, Victoria 3977 Australia

Submitter
Hayball

Cost
$5,953,890

Photographer
Dianna Snape

Project Overview

This summary reflects the rigour of the planning process and the intensity of the briefing sessions (generally fortnightly) running over an extended 11 month period. The long time-span was necessary to ensure that the Education Brief could evolve in a carefully considered manner and not be rushed by false timelines or commercial expediency.

We highlight the “design” did not commence for 4 months and even then was undertaken only to demonstrate broad concepts emerging from the briefing process. “Real” design did not actually commence until month 7 of the briefing process, reflecting our conviction that design should not to divert or “short-circuit” the development of the Education Brief, but should only commence once the education vision and principles have been established.

We also highlight the continual development of the Return Brief prepared by Hayball which is a comprehensive document sitting side-by-side with the school’s Education Brief and augmenting it in terms of the architectural details and requirements. 

It is our desire to provide a contemporary curriculum that is modelled on 21st century learning. Our vision is to maximise the physical environment that allows learning to flow in and out of the man made structures and the natural environment that the site provides. We want students to feel safe at the campus and look forward to each day with the learning possibilities that it brings and the social connections that it allows.

At Year 7 and 8 students progress through a structured curriculum covering the areas of Religious Education, English, Maths, LOTE, Science, Humanities, Music and Integrated Learning.

The new Sr Rosemary Graham RSM Building represents a sophisticated and distinctive model of contemporary education reflecting a deep and creative working relationship between the architect and the school.

The facility encapsulates a rigorous process of analysis, exploration and translation that has emerged into an exceptional response defining contemporary Middle Years education.

The outcome has been supported a planning process that genuinely challenged the original thinking, evaluated current education philosophies, critically examined contemporary options and explored options. The result is an outcome tuned to the St. Peter’s context.

At the heart of the planning has been the provision of separate Year 7 and Year 8 Learning Communities connected by an “Innovation Hub” providing an intensive, immersive education experience. The Hub provides the focus for inter-disciplinary, research-based and kinaesthetic learning, comprising:

  • “Ideas Kitchen”
  • Visual Arts Studio
  • Design Technology Hub
  • Drama and Media Studio
  • Outdoor Performing Area
  • Outdoor Workshop