St Georges Anglican Grammar School

St George’s Anglican Grammar School (SGAGS) opened in the heart of the Perth last year. It is the first new city school in 100 years and Perth’s first vertical school. SGAGS uses bold colours and innovative design, incorporating the city as an urban campus, enjoying cultural, educational and recreational facilities.

The rectangular office building was split into layers incorporating an invigorating colour palette. To assist way-finding, each floor was branded by a gradient of colour and linked through use of stairway graphics. Reconfigurable student-friendly breakout areas were strategically placed on each floor, allowing light to diffuse and filter across all spaces. The interior design focused on flexible, high impact, low cost solutions. The transformation of the rooftop into a recreation deck provides valuable recreational amenity. The project was delivered in an extremely tight time frame and limited budget.

The Principal reports the design has exceeded expectations, is a spacious learning environment that is exciting, dynamic and fit for purpose. The layout is very flexible and provides both larger and smaller teaching spaces as well as catering for different learning styles, with maximum visibility so that students can work unsupervised.

The teachers appreciate the panoramic view across the city to the Swan River and don’t feel cut off from the world. The large classrooms provide a flexible working environment for different configurations and learning styles. They find SGAGS a school where there is colour, light, transparency and sharing, where wide corridors and lobbies make for ease of movement between classes.

The students love the building, especially the student areas and the very big classrooms. They use the many different spaces to work in groups or independently and it is easy to move between classes. The School is modern and feels like a sophisticated environment.

The community is delighted with the outstanding facility, calling it ultra-modern and student friendly. The design lets you forget you are in a high-rise building, it gives the feeling of being in a professional, student centred school environment.