 | WOORANNA PARK PRIMARY Collaboration and adaptation. Mary Featherston transforms
standard school buildings into
flowing learning environments.
REVIEW JENNIFER CALZINI
PHOTOGRAPHY DIANNA SNAPE
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The welcoming
environment of
Wooranna Park
Primary School’s
prep unit.
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The studio
laboratory at the
Grade 5/6 unit.
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Detail of
the lounge area.
Photograph
Julian Featherston.
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A Grade
5/6 classroom.
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The library at
the resource centre.
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The prep unit,
showing the circular
reading loft in the
background.
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The resource
centre’s reading
lounge.
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An alcove for
various activities at
the resource centre.
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“Schools are one of the most interesting and challenging areas
for design today. Young people spend vital hours of their lives
in them, they are the workplaces of many adults, they contain
many relationships and huge expectations and they absorb
vast resources. School buildings are very visible and tangible
expressions of our attitudes to children and learning.”
Mary Featherston
Schools are a critical part of our built environment. At their best, school learning spaces support
relevant and contemporary pedagogy, are connected
with the physical and social fabric of individual
communities, and relate to surrounding urban and
natural landscapes. In 2006 the Office of the Victorian
Government Architect in the Department of Premier
and Cabinet began providing advice to government
on architecture and urban design, with a general
objective of promoting better design outcomes for
all government buildings and public spaces. Schools
are a key focus for the office. Together with the
architectural and educational communities, leading
projects that exemplify good school design are being
identified, and Mary Featherston’s work with the
Wooranna Park Primary School in North Dandenong
is an excellent example of how design can transform
learning environments.
Mary Featherston’s role at Wooranna has been
as designer of the interior learning spaces, including
design of the furniture and its layout, display and
locker areas and meeting areas for parents and
teachers. Mary has worked collaboratively with
the school in this way since her first involvement
at Wooranna four years ago – a publicly funded study
on the effect of innovative practices in school design
on a child’s learning. Research is emerging that shows
the educational benefits to children of well designed
learning environments. Such spaces are comfortable,
imaginative and fun. They are linked to educational
objectives, use natural light and ventilation, and
allow children to be simultaneously supported
and able to direct their own learning and interaction
with others. Alongside this emerging awareness,
the Victorian Government has made a commitment
to assign significant resources to renovate or
rebuild our stock of school buildings. This alone
is giving renewed impetus to a re-evaluation of
the infrastructure to better reflect current pedagogical
thought and practice and to provide high quality,
sustainable teaching and learning environments.
With these possibilities in mind: how do we
ensure good design in schools? Discussions with
educators and designers point to a good process as
an important factor. The school built environment
in the public sector is a partnership between the
state and the private sector, necessitating much
collaboration and sharing of knowledge. Among other
things, the state provides funding, broad pedagogical
direction and parameters that guide the allocation
of funds spatially – for example, space areas and rates
per area. An education brief or specification relating
to curriculum is each school’s responsibility and
depends on school and local community input. The private sector is contracted by government to
provide project management, architectural and other
consultant services to interpret the education brief
and translate the state’s requirements into the physical
outcome. The design of good learning spaces appears
to rely significantly on a good brief – one that “puts
pedagogy first”. Collaboration between educators
and designers is also fundamental to matching
pedagogy and space. A shared language between
educators and designers is probably the single most
important aspect behind good school design.
At Wooranna existing learning spaces have
been transformed through a collaborative process
in which input from children and the school
community, and an understanding of educational
objectives, have been central. New spaces have been
created within the existing standard school building
by removing some walls, taking advantage of these
buildings’ structural potential to be very open plan
and to have great natural light. While possibly not
performing to current thermal expectations without
modifications to their shell, these standard structures
lend themselves to spatial adaptation without the
need for major structural changes, making them easy
to “recycle” – itself a sustainable act. “Spaces connect
and flow one to the other but they are still separated,” explains Featherston. This is a key point. There is a
degree of separation but “diverse spaces are always
available to the children, enabling them to move freely
from one setting to another throughout the day”.
Mary Featherston has used colour to highlight
more “public” spaces, keeping the learning areas
simple and white so they don’t distract. There are
many places for children to display their work
three-dimensionally and this contributes greatly to
a sense of engagement. The school is non-institutional,
pleasant and welcoming. In fact it is a fun place
to be and seems to have its own personality that
is not at all “standardized”. Featherston has described
the design as being from the “inside out”, but suggests
that one could equally approach from the “outside
in”. With further funding it would be possible to
reconsider and connect more strongly with the
outdoor spaces, which are increasingly recognized
as extremely valuable learning settings.
The school has been judged favourably by
educational peers and has been recognized through
industry awards. Three elements of the design
process could be said to stand out as contributing
to Wooranna’s success. Firstly, the design is based
on a clear pedagogical vision. Schools that have
a well-developed vision and philosophy of learning
have an advantage in effectively shaping their school
spaces. Secondly, the school has strong leadership
by a “design champion”. School principal Ray Trotter
has led the school community and culture in
supporting and respecting the contribution of the
designer and the collaborative design approach. Changes had been made to the school’s more
traditional spaces before Mary Featherston became
involved, and the school continues to be very active
in decision-making. Thirdly, the school has embraced
a sensitive, creative and independent designer who
understands education.
This points again to the importance of partnership
between educators and designers. Another aspect is
underlined by Featherston, who describes how “time” needs to be managed so that ideas can be developed
with educators and students independently from
project timeline pressures. It is sometimes possible
to separate the design streams, she explains. For
example, some spaces can be developed further while
others are under construction. This type of streamed
approach, with the objective of gaining design time
at the front end, may be very suitable for existing
schools and smaller projects. In all cases, there are
significant time and budget constraints and creative
ways of achieving good results are being explored.
The Office of the Victorian Government
Architect has been working with the Department
of Education to recognize and publicize other schools
and designers who are doing exceptional work. One initiative is the Victorian School Design Awards,
which were held for the first time in 2006 and will be
held again this year. The awards are for government
schools that excel in design. The criteria include: response to the initial school brief, design concept
and resolution, responsiveness to linking learning
pedagogy to space, responsiveness to ecologically
sustainable design issues, responsiveness to the
greater community, responsiveness to the physical
environment, and best practice in combining
community use of school facility.
The close connection between the educators
at state level, the local school community and
the design and construction community is
critical and should be enhanced. For the Office
the focus is on design: the benefits of good
design, the conditions for getting this and how
we can promote design as a way of getting the
most public benefit from available resources. Schools like Wooranna are showing the way.
Jennifer Calzini is an architect and is Principal
Policy Officer at the Office of the Victorian
Government Architect.
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| WOORANNA PARK
PRIMARY SCHOOL
REFURBISHMENTS,
DANDENONG NORTH
2004–2007 |
Designer
Mary Featherston.
Client
Wooranna Park
Primary School—
principal Ray Trotter; assistant principal
Esme Capp.
Funding—
refurbishments
School community; Department of
Education, Victoria.
Funding—Action
Research Project
Department of
Education, Victoria.
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