BROADMEADOWS SPECIAL DEVELOPMENTAL SCHOOL

Broadmeadows Special Developmental School is a co-ed government special education school for primary and secondary aged students who have an intellectual disability. The Sorrento Campus is one of two campuses, co-located within the Broadmeadows Education precinct. This project involves the construction of an Administration Hub and a Community Hub.

Completed

2025

Traditional Owners

Wurundjeri people

Project Type

Special Needs

Client

Victorian School Building Authority

A permanent legacy‍ ‍

From the beginning of this project it was clear that this school had a unique and complex set of circumstances. The majority of the school site consisted of portables crammed onto a slope, with a barely adequate bus loop matched with a problematic onsite traffic set up. The threat of rock, impossible site access and decanting added to our list of ‘impossi-puzzles’ to solve. Our solution was to reroute and rebuild a more functional bus loop, insert a prominent Administration Hub on the slope that overlooks the rest of the site while creating a campus landmark, and to carve out a significant part of the slope for a Community Hub. Suddenly, we had an interesting cut-and-fill challenge that featured sculptural cantilevering structures and retaining walls. Reclaiming usable ground spoke to our desire to gift a permanent legacy for future generations. We understood that the opportunity for bold moves come about rarely.

We took the challenges of the school as the seed for our earnest critical response to the design. We prioritised building community spaces as the school had been operating out of portables for over two decades. The school was missing a good sized gymnasium, food technology space and various specialist and therapy spaces, which we brought together under one roof in the Community Hub. The social spaces of the Community and Administration Hubs open up to a shared courtyard that will gradually be shaded by generous canopied trees. It was a unique and complex experience to serve the school and to meet all the requirements of the administrative machinery.