CEFPI represented in the WA AIA Awards
07 Aug 2014
Five educational projects completed by CEFPI WA members were recognised at the 2014 Australian Institute of Architects – WA Chapter Architecture Awards, announced on 03 July 2014.
Architecture Awards were conferred on Donaldson + Warn Architects for Governor Stirling Senior High School in the Public Architecture category, and Broderick Architects for Geraldton Universities Centre : Stage 2 Expansion in the Small Project Architecture category. Additions and alterations to existing educational precincts, both projects respond beautifully to their respective site contexts. The redeveloped Governor Stirling Senior High School comprises new contemporary facilities, with learning and ancillary areas circling landscaped courtyards, and a series of buildings overlooking views of the picturesque Swan River. Likewise, in comments on the expansion at Geraldton Universities Centre, the jury noted that the project ‘is subject to salt laden winds that accompany a spectacular view of the coast. This setting is invited into the internal spaces of the building through a series of moves, one being the capturing of the sunrise to sunset within the east west ‘ internal street’’.
The built form at Governor Stirling Senior High School is predominantly two storey buildings arranged in a cloistered plan. Adaptable modern facilities have been designed to cater for current teaching and learning methodologies, and future changes in pedagogy and educational structures. General learning areas are accessed through ‘anti-rooms that receive students into a grand, light filled atrium’, the jury commented. The resultant internal and external spaces offer ample communal areas and opportunities for collaboration and interaction.
For the expansion at Geraldton Universities Centre, Broderick Architects successfully utilised operable walls and a series of lighting configurations, to enable the flexible and multiple use of internal spaces. Planning for the future was a key driver of this project as well, and the building takes advantage of high end information technology to aid in the delivery of education to students. The jury commended the planning of the building as ‘logical and easily readable by the users with the main ‘internal street’ intersecting with a secondary spine from which the learning areas are accessed’.
Parry and Rosenthal Architects were awarded two Commendations in the Public Architecture and Small Project Architecture categories, for Mother Teresa Catholic School – Stage 1 and Aquinas College Early Years Learning Centre respectively.
Also awarded a Commendation in the 2014 CEFPI Awards in May, the Mother Teresa Catholic School – Stage 1 in Baldivis is the first phase of a new Catholic primary school comprising early childhood classrooms for K-2 with administration, library, canteen, multipurpose rooms and covered area. Learning spaces have visual and physical connections to external courtyards and a variety of internal ‘learning pods’, which provide more intimate spaces for one-to-one learning and interaction of small groups.
A facility for early learning was also the focus in Parry and Rosenthal’s second Commendation, for the new Early Years Learning Centre at Aquinas College. This project involved the design of new learning spaces for children aged 3-9 years, which are grouped around a central shaded courtyard and nature play space. The buildings have been scaled appropriately to provide both a sense of safety and security for the children, as well as to establish a new complementary and inviting addition at the entry to the school campus.
Cox Howlett & Bailey Woodland received a Commendation in the Sustainable Architecture category for their redevelopment of Bullsbrook College. This project has created additional teaching and learning facilities within an integrated educational campus, with a focus on numerous sustainable initiatives embedded within the design. The jury praised the use of passive ventilation and solar performance through use of orientation and creation of green courtyard spaces, integration of new PV cells onto existing buildings, water harvesting, and extensive re-planting to the site with native plants, among other sustainable design measures.
Congratulations to all award recipients. Those who won a Named or Architecture Award will now progress to the National Architecture Awards to be held later this year in November.
