The new Heritage College Junior Learning Centre provide much needed learning spaces, staff spaces, and amenities to serve the school’s burgeoning student population. Both buildings were simultaneously documented, tendered, and constructed, and were completed in record time in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The buildings are similar in form but vary in material expression – one is clad in corrugated metal cladding and Modwood, the other in bands of glazed brick and standing seam cladding – adding texture and colour to the campus’ built environment.
Both buildings have a central group learning space that rises to double height, lit by clerestory windows that draw natural light deep into each building. However, the interior design of each building is markedly different – one building is designed to dovetail with the existing primary school, and so takes on its existing design motif in the form of multicoloured hexagonal acoustic panels, tiles, and patterned carpet to create a seamless transition from the existing to the new. The other building stands alone and establishes a contrasting vocabulary, with sweeping curved bulkheads and coved ceilings in varying shades of grey, creating a muted, calming atmosphere. Suspended acoustic baffles and woodwool acoustic panels finished in a pearlescent metallic grey follow the curves in the ceilings, creating visual interest whilst providing acoustic attenuation to the classrooms and music room.
The two buildings are linked by an outdoor learning area sheltered by a lightweight steel canopy, its two outstretched “wings” clad with translucent sheeting to allow filtered daylight into the learning area whilst sheltering students from inclement weather, creating a welcoming space that students will enjoy for years to come.
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