Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation
Victoria
Brighton Grammar School’s new Duigan Centre is a dynamic learning environment bringing together science, design and technology, music, and entrepreneurship. It is named after alumnus John Robertson Duigan MC, designer and pilot of the first Australian-made powered aircraft. Organised across two levels, this beautifully designed and carefully engineered building delivers a complex program including rooftop tennis courts, and basement carparking with a wonderful sense of space and volume on a very small footprint.
This environmentally sustainable building design mediates an exchange between the School, St Andrews Church, and the Parish tennis club. Its material pallet of in-situ concrete, steel, and glass, together with carefully framed views that acknowledge the surrounding heritage buildings and landscape, an active street edge displaying hands-on learning environments, and a suspended replica of Duigan’s bi-plane make this building an exciting learning environment for experiment, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and a great addition to the local community.
The Duigan Centre is the largest building project in the School’s history and an exemplar of contemporary educational design, purpose-built to support collaboration and vibrant social interaction for students and staff. Its flexible environments encourage interdisciplinary learning, creativity and innovative teaching practice across diverse settings, enhanced by excellent acoustics and soft, natural lighting that create a calm, focused atmosphere for learning. Named in honour of Brighton Grammar Old Boy John Robertson Duigan, the first to design, build and fly an Australian-made aircraft, the Centre brings history into daily school life, inspiring courage, vision and enterprise for generations to come.
John Sprunt, Principal in Charge
Anthony Apolloni, Project Lead
Alana Knight, Interior Design Lead
Paulo Sampaio, Design Lead
Kellee Frith, Educational Environments Strategist
Simon Farr, Team Member
Andrew Hurd, Team Member
Thurston Empson, Team Member
Montgomery Balding, Team member
Lily Paterson Minton, Team member
Helen Duong, Team Member
Luke Martelli, Team Member
Laura Venier, Team Member
Syed Imran Hassan, Team member
Ken Waters, Team member
Zoe Hughes, Team Member
Angus Munro, Team Member
Oculus, Landscape Consultant
Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec, Structural Engineer
SCLspec, Specification
Urbis, Town Planner
Bryce Raworth Conservation, Heritage Consultant
Cardno, Traffic Consultant
Affinity Fire Engineering, Fire Safety Consultant
Glowing Structures, Specialist Lighting
WSP Facade Engineering, Façade Engineer
VP Building Surveying, Building Surveyor
Acoustic Consulting Australia, Acoustic Consultant
Green Design Group, Commercial Kitchen Consultant
Studio Semaphore, Signage Consultant
MGAC, DDA and Access Consultant
SportsEng, Sports Consultant
Salus, Risk Consultant
Erbas, Building Services and ESD