Brisbane school building adapts to climate and diverse learning

INDUSTRY NEWS ?|??ArchitectureAU Editorial ??25 Jan 2022

Strength and gentleness: The Marian Centre

At a Catholic girls’ school in Brisbane, a STEM building designed by Blight Rayner conveys a sense of solidity and affirmation while embracing adaptability to both climate and diverse learning and teaching models.

Designed by Blight Rayner, the Marian Centre is both a loud statement about the school’s focus on encouraging more girls to take up STEM subjects, with its multiple levels and $13 million price tag, and a quiet affirmation of the school’s traditions, with its muted colour palette and sympathetic relationship with its surrounds. The architecture conveys a sense of solidity, while also embracing adaptability to both climate and diverse learning and teaching models.

The design team at Blight Rayner explains that they spent time understanding the school’s philosophy and mission, as well as thinking about the “somewhat curious” motto.

“In essence, in our interpretation of this was to be determined and resilient, but also empathetic and considerate,” Blight Rayner states. “The brief was to create an architecture that is not ostentatious nor ‘tricked up’, as well as being expressive of authenticity, humility and sustainability.”

There was only one possible site available for a building of this size on Brigidine College’s compact campus in Indooroopilly, in a low corner separated from the campus proper by a high-walled gymnasium. The building is connected to the campus via a narrow slot about three levels up from the site’s ground level.

“As this was flood-prone land, we incorporated much needed teacher parking on the lower two levels, such that the third level equates to the campus’ main level to be connected by a bridge in time,” Blight Rayner explains.

“The plan is a relatively simple arrangement of classrooms and laboratories either side of a central naturally-ventilated spine. However, with the school’s only substantial playground being at the lower ground level, we developed a longitudinal section aligning an amphitheatre and auditorium that allows students to access the upper levels via a continuous set of staircases.”

While the position of the building’s sides was predetermined by setbacks, the less constrained western end features organically shaped classrooms, with sliding ribbed perforated screens to block the western sun or open up the spaces “like verandas overlooking the playground.” At the eastern end, similar screens can be opened to allow for views of the external parklands, or closed for privacy from the street below when desired.

Inside, laboratories and classrooms are laid out in a variety of formats to facilitate different teaching and learning methods, with some able to be made contiguous for different year levels and subject cohorts to collaborate.

Sustainability is also a focus, with classrooms and laboratories louvred to provide natural ventilation in conjunction with the central spine, with any mixed-mode airconditioning supplied by solar photovoltaics on the rooftop.

Blight Rayner’s design aims to capture the ethos Brigidine College, while supporting the school’s goal “to encourage our young women to make a difference in the world to come.”