‘Diverse, complex and messy’: 2021 Old School New School

Hannah Tribe reviews 2021’s Old School New School forum and discovers “deeply emotional and conscientiously imaginative” work, as well as projects that are challenging the business-as-usual perpetuation of educational privilege and exclusion.

This year’s Old School New School was presented across three sessions – the first looking at primary and secondary education, the second early learning and the third tertiary education.

In the schools session, Back to School: Designing for Primary and Secondary Education, Rosan Bosch of Rosan Bosch Studio from Denmark, Meagan Killer from the Queensland Department of Education and Bentley Park College principals Bruce Houghton and Adam Catalano spoke to the trend for agile learning spaces designed to help teaching and learning in a contemporary world. Information is cheap now and we accept people learn differently: collaboration, critical thinking, problem-based learning are key. Bosch presented interior design solutions including larger classrooms, amorphous upholstered amphitheatre seating, nooks, and movable furniture to deal with this fluid educational context. In the local presentation, it was a highlight to see students from Bentley Park College attest to the increase in their own educational engagement and attendance as a result of the new learning space (although, rather cruelly, they didn’t credit the dedicated teaching staff who make new spatial realities work!).

St Andrew's Scots School by Rosan Bosch Studio.

St Andrew’s Scots School by Rosan Bosch Studio.

Image: Supplied

Rachel Neeson of Neeson Murcutt and Neille presented a suite of educational buildings, including the new sports facility Rosewood Centre at Barker College on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. A luminous manta ray appears to glide over the playing fields. The terrain falls away beneath it, making bleachers seating and tall gymnasium spaces through a manipulation of the section. The manta ray is suspended on a slender, deep grid roof structure, which is a legible ordering device as well as a wonderous, delicate means of spanning large divides. I hope this glowing beacon of a building helps to inspire our public school infrastructure people to strive for singularity, excellence and the specific expression of place in their procurement of new facilities.

Child’s Play: Designing for Early Learning was a compelling cross-section of elegant architecture, social agency and theory. The theoretical piece was the PhD thesis of Faith Swickard, presented with early learning designer Sandra Duncan. They argued strongly for a move away from bloodless compliance-based design to the exploration of emotion in the architecture of pre-schools.

Surely one of the great separators of young children from adults is our daily emotional range – young children can oscillate at mad speeds from the depths of despair to wild ecstasy. How fascinating to think about how spatial design and decoration might support learning and development for these volatile little users. The research drew conclusions about organizational and plan proportions in the design of emotionally specific places. I wonder if this research might not be better served with an analysis of section, the organizational relationships between “emotional” plan shapes, clarity of diagram, light and relationship with nature.

KB Primary and Secondary School by HIBINOSEKKEI and Youji no Shiro and Kids Design Labo.

KB Primary and Secondary School by HIBINOSEKKEI and Youji no Shiro and Kids Design Labo.

Image: Studio Bauhaus

In another refreshing surprise, we moved from talking about emotions to talking about imagination. Landscape architect Fiona Robbé organizes early learning play spaces around the imaginative potential of the kids. So simple, so lovely. She showed the charming example of the sandpit transforming from “mud kitchen” to construction site to dinosaur land. There is a degree of wisdom and restraint required to maintain the imagination of the users front and centre in the design and resist any urge towards the didactic.

From the deeply emotional and conscientiously imaginative, we travel to the crisply legible with Japanese architect Taku Hibino of Youji no Shiro. We see a series of beguiling images of childcare centres across Japan and China that have a charming simplicity in their architectural diagram. They seem to have very legible organizational strategies, rendered with fun and cunning to create spatial variety and encourage children to move and shake it. Although we didn’t examine any case studies in detail, the projects presented had a seductive sense of conceptual clarity, sensitive relationships with the sun, clear navigation, a sense of simplicity and play.

On Campus: Designing for Tertiary Education was the final session with three snappy presentations from Shirley Blumberg of Toronto-based KPMB Architects, Rufus Black from the University of Tasmania and Hazel Porter of Woods Bagot. In the cracking “dissection” panel chaired by Mark Roehrs, UTAS vice chancellor Rufus Black challenged the whole profession to do better and stole the show.

The UTAS proposals by John Wardle Architects in Launceston engage with their former railway workshop site through a suite of industrial motifs. They employ vernacular form and the tectonic of the shed as a starting point for their circular sustainability proposition and deep place-specificity. Illustrating the client ambition for buildings that are particular to place, they embody a particularly Tasmanian ethos of humility and accessibility.

Shirley Blumberg, speaking from Canada, also appears to have had bold leadership on inclusion and sustainability at the very different institution of Princeton University. In an attempt to increase diversity in undergraduate and graduate student cohorts, Princeton is investing heavily in financial aid for students from diverse backgrounds. And when these diverse cohorts arrive, the buildings need to say, “you are welcome here.” Kudos to Blumberg’s team on the elegantly and minimally detailed abstract cubes that sit atop the filigree of the original Gothic Revival Frick Building.

Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, University of British Columbia by KPMB Architects.

Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, University of British Columbia by KPMB Architects.

Image: Adrien Williams

In Melbourne, Hazel Porter of Woods Bagot works with a wildly mixed hybrid program in the Melbourne Connect innovation precinct. Anchoring the precinct is the University of Melbourne, coupled with aligned industry, research, collaboration spaces, artist studios, visiting academic accommodation, a science gallery, startups and labs all anchored around a central space and carved up by ground floor laneways. UTAS vice chancellor Black said in passing that Australia was a woefully poor performer on the global stage when it comes to industry and university engagement, so we look with hope to the success of Melbourne Connect as an early leader in this space.

What were the key takeaways? We need educational and institutional buildings that support new learning methodologies and prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Buildings need to be low embodied carbon, low carbon-emitting, long-term, loose-fit and ultimately recyclable. Students at all level need to be connected to place in specific and meaningful ways.

Business-as-usual industry and procurement methods in Australia are not supporting leadership in this space. Risk-offsetting and committee-clients do not support this. Business-as-usual perpetuation of educational privilege and exclusion will not support this.

I’ll end by quoting Rufus Black on inclusivity and public space:

“Perhaps COVID has told us just how prized [public and civic space] is … and we need to rediscover it in our institutions and public life. We need to break out of our digital silos … and regather – diverse, complex and messy – all the thousands of signals that buildings send out, we want our education buildings to say, ‘You are welcome here.’”

He had me at silos.

Delegates can view all three sessions on demand in the Design Speaks portal up until 1 October. Tickets may be purchased up until 24 September.

Old School New School is presented by Architecture Media, publisher of ArchitectureAU. It is supported by principal partner Dulux and major partner Planned Cover.

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