Jury citation
The unusual opportunity to accommodate this childcare centre and ancillary community facilities in a multi- level inner-urban warehouse inspired the architects to reinvent the type, insightfully encouraging a fascination with cities as a guiding pedagogical tenet. The skilful insertion of a “reimagined” city at the scale of children transforms the interior, with highly articulated and carefully scaled spaces and courtyards for multiple settings of communal and singular play adding spatial delight. Carefully filtered light funnelled deep into the building, a warm yet gentle materials palette and playful details combine to deliver an atmosphere that engenders a sense of freedom and curiosity.
At the urban level the architects have again reinvented the brief through an imaginative solution, keeping an adjacent laneway open by connecting the adjacent playground using a “treehouse” bridge. The playground demonstrates the same rigour and focus on imaginative spatial and textural experiences. Locating the childcare centre on the top three levels also allows the community centre below to animate the laneway. The project extends its community responsibility by generously embracing and sustaining this laneway and enhancing the adjacent street. This engaging project is exemplary in placing the delight of the child’s world and its urban future at its heart.
For more coverage, read the project review by Maryam Gusheh.
Credits
- Project
- East Sydney Early Learning Centre
- Architect
- Andrew Burges Architects
Surry Hills, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Project Team
- Andrew Burges, Alex Wilson, Jo Tinyou, Celia Carroll, Anna Field, Chris Su, Chris Mullaney, John Nguyen, Louise Lovmand, Nadia Zhao, City of Sydney project team Elizabeth Sandoval (senior design manager), Wendy James (design manager)
- Consultants
-
City of Sydney
Acoustic consultant PKA Acoustic Consulting
Builder Belmadar Constructions
Electrical and lighting consultant Floth
Heritage consultant John Oultram
Landscape consultant JMD Design
Mechanical engineer and ESD Consultant Steensen Varming
Signage Design by Toko
Structural engineer SDA Structures
- Site Details
- Project Details
-
Status
Built
Category Education
Type Adaptive re-use, Early childhood
Source
Award
Published online: 2 Nov 2017
Words:
2017 National Architecture Awards Jury
Images:
Peter Bennetts
Issue
Architecture Australia, November 2017