Turrbal people
Queensland
Brisbane
The Canopy Cafe occupies a 'left over' space at the edge of the St Margaret's campus, fronting a public street and adjoining the heritage-listed Darnell Music Building. Located at the junction of the primary and secondary schools, the cafe is designed to encourage social interaction across all year levels.
The cafe is conceived as a series of gabled and half-gabled roofs with skylights that flood the social spaces with daylight, responding in form, texture and colour to the neighbouring heritage building. The roofs form the effect of lightweight canopies under the natural canopy of a large fig tree, already serving as a meeting place. A change of level is transformed into an amphitheatre, and an under croft revitalised for additional social interaction.
The Canopy Cafe has proven not only popular with students, but as a meeting venue for staff, parents and alumni.
The Canopy Cafe transforms a leftover campus edge into a vibrant community heart, uniting primary and secondary students across formerly disjointed levels. Conceived as a series of architectural canopies, the design floods interlinked gathering spaces with daylight while framing views of an iconic fig tree and heritage surrounds. Gabled roof forms echo the adjoining Darnell Building, but the design continues the contemporary language of recent master planning work. Adaptive reuse, natural ventilation and landscape conservation anchor a considered sustainability approach. The project delivers exceptional community value with material elegance.
Commendation For Educational Architecture
St Margaret’s Canopy Cafe serves to unify and redress a sequence of previously under-utilised interstitial spaces within the campus. This project takes its opportunity to coordinate the residual spaces left between, under, and within a precinct of St Margaret’s to improve the amenity of a new network of social and learning spaces. At its heart, it inserts the new canopy cafe as the social hub of the campus. The pleated roof form articulates and frames views from within the building out towards the mature fig tree and heritage neighbour. This new precinct serves to instill renewed pride in the College.
Colorbond® Award For Steel Architecture – Commendation
The profile of the pitching gable, half gable, and folded mansard facades of the St Margaret’s Canopy Cafe are a defining feature of this building along its many designated approaches. The Cafe has been thoughtfully designed as an object in the round, adjacent to a mature fig tree and the heritage-listed Darnell Music Building. Whether encountered at ground level or viewed from upon the 3-storey adjacent buildings and accessways, the Cafe roof, which has been expertly detailed in metallic ‘Copernicius’ Colorbond longline cladding, becomes a critical fifth elevation.
Commendation for Educational Architecture
The Canopy Cafe transforms a leftover campus edge into a vibrant community heart, uniting primary and secondary students across formerly disjointed levels. Conceived as a series of architectural canopies, the design floods interlinked gathering spaces with daylight while framing views of an iconic fig tree and heritage surrounds. Gabled roof forms echo the adjoining Darnell Building, but the design continues the contemporary language of recent master planning work. Adaptive reuse, natural ventilation and landscape conservation anchor a considered sustainability approach. The project delivers exceptional community value with material elegance.
COLORBOND Shortlist, EmAGN Project Award shortlist
Commendation For Educational Architecture
St Margaret’s Canopy Cafe serves to unify and redress a sequence of previously under-utilised interstitial spaces within the campus. This project takes its opportunity to coordinate the residual spaces left between, under, and within a precinct of St Margaret’s to improve the amenity of a new network of social and learning spaces. At its heart, it inserts the new canopy cafe as the social hub of the campus. The pleated roof form articulates and frames views from within the building out towards the mature fig tree and heritage neighbour. This new precinct serves to instill renewed pride in the College.
Colorbond® Award For Steel Architecture - Commendation
The profile of the pitching gable, half gable, and folded mansard facades of the St Margaret’s Canopy Cafe are a defining feature of this building along its many designated approaches. The Cafe has been thoughtfully designed as an object in the round, adjacent to a mature fig tree and the heritage-listed Darnell Music Building. Whether encountered at ground level or viewed from upon the 3-storey adjacent buildings and accessways, the Cafe roof, which has been expertly detailed in metallic ‘Copernicius’ Colorbond longline cladding, becomes a critical fifth elevation.
The Canopy Café has significantly transformed the school campus, designed to thoughtfully integrate with the surrounding environment and connect the primary and secondary schools.
The cafeteria facilitates efficient flow of food and beverage service with flexibility to offer a fresh and varied menu, while the seating area provides a modern venue to host gatherings and events or an additional learning space.
A place of connection, not just for students and staff, but for visitors to the school campus including parents and alumni, the Canopy Café is a vibrant hub that reflects the school’s strong sense of community.
Jayson Blight, Design Director
Madeleine Nicol, Project Architect
Holly Quince, Architecture Student
Nina Sapparth, Architecture Student
Ben Carter, BIM Manager
Perry Gustafson, Construction Technology Leader
DMA Partners, Project Manager
Jeremy Ferrier, Landscape Consultant
Bligh Tanner, Structural Engineer
Bligh Tanner, Civil Consultant
Meptec, Mechanical
Meptec, ESD Consultant
Meptec, Hydraulic Consultant
Meptec, Electrical Consultant
Meptec, Fire Protection and Fire Services
Meptec, Acoustic Consultant
TTM Group, Waste Consultant
Brisbane Commercial Kitchens, Food and Beverage Consultant
Jensen Hughes, DDA Access Consultant