St Columba’s College, Sophia Library

Gone is the traditional silent library, replaced with the active buzz of students engaging in collaborative and independent learning. The result is an innovative design owned by all, and which firmly establishes the Sophia Library as the epitome of the school’s student-centric thinking

Project Details

Architects
Hayball

Award
Commendation Category 4 – Renovation / Modernisation / Under $2M

Address
2 Leslie Road Essendon VIC 3040 Australia

Submitter
Hayball

Cost
$1.96M

Photographer
Dianna Snape

Project Overview

“The library is now a constant hub of activity throughout the day. Students have embraced the new spaces and developed a sense of ownership and belonging.” Janice Dunbar, Head of Library

The concept of libraries is forever evolving. No longer only treasure houses for books and places of studious austerity, the rules have relaxed and expanded for the 21st century.

Sophia Library’s metamorphosis began in 2012, when St Columba’s College began the journey of reimagining the library and its role within the school community. This reimagining set out to not only redefine the physical environment of the library, but also the philosophical understandings of a library’s role within 21st century learning.

The design of the library draws on Hayball’s previous work with the school which established a new standard of multi-modal settings based on collaborative student practices. The pedagogical approach to those teaching spaces is translated seamlessly into the library and adjacent courtyard.

The Sophia Library is now a series of interconnected learning zones which cater for different learning needs and activities.

Throughout the design process the College worked collaboratively with Hayball. Strategic leadership and the progressive education vision steadily being embraced by the school were fundamental to breaking the mould of a traditional library. The education specification was developed in an evolutionary and exploratory process involving genuine collaboration and patience in the process not to design until the thinking around the teaching and learning model had developed and matured.
Through meetings involving leadership and library staff the brief for the library was able to develop alongside the design, which meant that ideas could be tested and evolved over time.

Information literacy was a key driver in the refurbishment, creating new and accessible spaces for the development of student skills in locating, selecting, organising and presenting information. Gone is the traditional silent library, replaced with the active buzz of students engaging in collaborative and independent learning in the rich variety of spaces and settings. Neither is a love of reading getting lost, with nooks and quiet spaces for reading and reflection. 

Juror’s Comments

The panel agreed that the images present a warm, welcoming, aesthetically pleasing and sophisticated environment that we would like to be in.

The project brief indicated that the school was rethinking the Library and how this new space could support new pedagogies emerging cross the school. While the panel appreciated that this work was in development it made it difficult to see how the Library development was an expression of a whole school approach to learning. The brief implies that the new Library is a huge departure from the Library of the past and that the Library will act as a catalyst for further pedagogical change across the school. The school is to be congratulated for taking this approach in using a facility as a mechanism for supporting changes to teacher practice and student learning. The architects are to be congratulated for grappling with a challenging brief.

Discussion of the desire to provide spaces for junior and senior students was articulated and it was clear to see that there were spaces for quiet, independent study and spaces for collaboration.

The college brief to provide a space which has less of an institutional feel and more of a vibrant and student friendly space related to a cohort of young women has been delivered with a welcoming calming and warm colour palette. It is a mature space appropriate for an all-girls secondary school.