South Australia
The redevelopment of Concordia’s St John’s Campus has transformed the primary school through new learning environments that bring the College together, reimagine the campus and provide the foundation for improved teaching and learning practices.
This project presented a significant opportunity to co-create a unified precinct with College leadership, utilising a collaborative visioning process to generate design principles founded on 4 core ideas:
_One College
_Every space is a place to learn
_The physical environment supports the learning process
_Connection to Nature
Briefed to provide new facilities to support strategic growth across years 4-6, expand the ELC, and improve connectivity between classrooms and the outdoors, we explored this and their existing facilities through their educational philosophy and developed a masterplan with upgraded junior primary learning areas, new ELC, upper primary learning building, resource centre and activity hall with a design narrative that celebrates nature through form, materiality, colour and maximising greenspace.
Commendation for Educational Architecture
The St John’s Campus Redevelopment embraces architecture as a facilitator for learning and community. Driven by a philosophy of connectivity and sustainability, the design utilises nature-inspired elements. The new classroom building evokes a ‘treehouse’ charm, with the colour palette inspired by the adjacent mature gum trees. Sustainable principles are apparent, including adaptive reuse and eco-friendly materials. The design prioritises student comfort and engagement, creating dynamic spaces for learning; fostering curiosity and a deep connection to nature.
The designs created by Brown Falconer have provided innovative and state of the art facilities that complement our educational philosophies in child centred education through using the learning environment as the third teacher.
The spaces now provide opportunities for our students to learn in open, flexible, and multi-functional learning environments, that were not previously available.Our educators were engaged in the design process from the beginning with Brown Falconer and consulted throughout the process providing agency and voice in the designs that they desired to facilitate and engage in their work.
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
