Discovery Centre – Concord School

2296
2294
2293
2292

Project Details

Architects
N/A

Address
411 Grimshaw Street Bundoora, Victoria 3083 Australia

Submitter
New Learning Environments | Rubida Research (in collaboration with Exhibition Studios)

Cost
$1.3M

Photographer
Christine Francis

Project Overview

The Discovery Centre was created to transform student learning. It provides an interactive environment that stimulates the senses and caters for the learning styles of all students. Each zone has a distinct educational purpose and can be linked in a learning sequence through the e5 Instructional Model.

The Concord School is an ICT-focused P-12 specialist school for learners with mild intellectual disability. Increased use of laptops gave Concord the opportunity to refurbishment a large outdated computer room into a sensory-based Discovery Centre.

The initial vision for the Discovery Centre was to provide a learning environment that can change, adapt and respond to different themes throughout the year, correlating with classroom activities across all year levels. Much like those found in Science Museums, the Centre was to provide opportunities not currently possible in the normal classroom setting.

The process commenced with extensive consultation and collaborative workshops with the learning community. Through the involvement of the school’s e-learning specialist, a range of teachers and students were able to offer feedback on the spaces. Two workshops were conducted with students where they experimented with furniture options and voiced opinions on and preferences for the spaces, use of colour and use of a range of textures on the walls and the floors.

To provide structure and align the different spaces with educational objectives and associated pedagogies, the interior space has been zoned according to a current Australian instructional model, the 5e: engage, explain, explore, elaborate and evaluate.

The vision for the building evolved to be that of interconnected, interactive spaces including spaces for experiments and high tech spaces and devices with a sensory focus. It was decided that this would best be achieved through the commissioning of an exhibition specialist for design development. This is how Exhibition Studios, a SA based company became involved.

The design works with existing structural features to minimise demolition work and remain sympathetic to the building’s form whilst providing the maximum amount of usable space for all areas. A single level was maintained to provide universal access.

Addressing four key sensory areas – vision, hearing, memory and touch – in each of the spaces was vital to the success of the facility in this context.

The Discover Centre includes:

  • Interactive Entry Foyer
  • Central Collaborative Space
  • Study Area
  • Wet Area
  • TV Studio & Radio Room
  • Multi-sensory Interactive Learning Environment (MILE)
  • Sensory Space