Awabakal & Worimi Peoples
NSW Regional
Regional
Newcastle Grammar School – Park Campus – Junior School is a teaching and learning hub in an old education precinct in Newcastle NSW. It is a place of belonging, a place to celebrate connection to country, site, people and purpose. The sensitive coastal location provided environmental challenges including marine grade solutions to materiality, hazardous flooding from adjacent civic drains, acoustic and privacy consideration to and from dense housing and traffic and parking congestion.
SHAC sought to nurture the memory of a rich tapestry of sand dunes and strangler figs, old fishing and crabbing grounds, and crystal clear tributaries, to reflect the architectural response, both across the building fabric and through the boardwalks and paperbarks framing the play spaces.
On a tight, highly visible, flood prone site Newcastle Grammar School is provided with a new building and a new identity. Conceptually it is a two-story building with both the underside and roof of the building being utilised for play and sport effectively doubling the floor area of the building.
A simple box form is elegantly wrapped in a battened skin providing privacy and shading to the street and peeling away when appropriate. The project excels in providing modern teaching space with an internal stair functioning as a library and tiered seating.
The completed design, and importantly, the built design realised, has enabled NGS to consolidate its Primary services onto a single metropolitan campus while unlocking additional passive and active play spaces. The internal building spaces enable functional, explicit, flexible and holistic learning, which lies at the heart of NGS’s ongoing value proposition to parents and the broader community.
Elizabeth Brown, Design Architect
SHAC, Architect
CORE Projects Group, Builder
Hatch & Northrop Engineers, Structural Engineer
Hatch & Northrop Engineers, Civil Consultant
Marline & Electrical Projects Australia, Electrical Consultant
Marline & Wallace Plumbing & Fire Design, Hydraulic Consultant
Marline & EVC Consulting Engineers, Mechanical Engineer
Gallagher Studio & Botanique Design, Landscape Consultant
Saretta Fielding, Indigenous Artist