Education - New Build

Boronia West Primary School is located on the base of the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne’s Outer East. The school had a number of unique social and spatial issues: the school [originally built for a cohort of 600 students] has 56 students, a high proportion of whom have significant learning and social challenges. The school had been losing students to surrounding schools with new facilities and as a result, the decision was made early on to prioritise the funding to build a new facility providing the school with modern learning environments, reducing ongoing maintenance costs and to create a visible marker to the community that there was change at Boronia West Primary School. We engaged with the staff and students to ensure we responded to the unique needs of the cohort whilst also supporting the school to think beyond their current situation and create an aspiration for how the school would operate with a larger population.

The new learning centre supports the current needs of the school by providing purpose-built acoustically-separated classrooms whilst also supporting the aspirations of the school to achieve team teaching and build on student agency by including a variety of spaces for smaller group and individual activities.

The restrained use of colour was also driven by the needs of the current student body – learning difficulties and behavioral issues saw soft, muted greens and natural blonde timber tones selected. Surfaces also are softened to reduce sound reverberation within teaching spaces.

Builder: Mackie Constructions