Designed by GGF Architects, the school project took place in Sydney motivated by the Building the Education Revolution (BER) funding opportunity.
The project addressed the needs for additional classrooms, library, music and art room.
The distinctive exterior cladding used is CERAMAPANEL 9mm Prefinished Compressed Fibre Cement, supplied by Fairview Architectural.
Wahroonga Preparatory School is nestled between the St Johns Uniting Church Group (NSW), a significant State Heritage listed group of buildings, screening the school building along both street frontages.
The architects stated:
"The design brief included needs to ameliorate and enrich the school environment for the children that inhabit the space; to adaptively reuse the school building while having minimal or no impact on the heritage significance of the Church and hall complex and its setting, bringing together a history of renovations into a cohesive aesthetic.
"Environmentally there have been many benefits to retention of the original building and its embodied energy, including reduced scope for demolition, recycling of building materials amongst other lifecycle benefits. A critical goal of the development was modernisation of the 1960’s building to allow improved safety standards, leading technology including teaching aids and energy efficient measures amongst many others.
"Consideration was given to the indoor environment including temperature, humidity, air quality, lighting and noise levels.
The orginal sketch
The final cost of the project was 2.2 million, funded in part by the Commonwealth government’s (BER) programme with the remainder paid directly by the School and Uniting Church Property Trust of NSW.
- Architect: GGF Architects
- Builder: Admire Build Pty Ltd
- Engineer: Eclipse Consulting & Martens & Associates
- Heritage: NBRS+Partners
- Town Planner: Glendinning Minto & Associates
- Photography: Archishot & Tanja Milbourne Photography
