From the architect:
This new purpose-built facility for St Bernard’s College for boys sits in a prominent location, located at the front entrance to the school and can be seen from the streets, whilst partially sunken into the landscape.
St Bernard’s College prides itself on teaching boys, and the design for the new facility provides a suitable environment for this function. It provides the right level of robustness and transparency.
Architecturally the building is a simple box-like form, inserted into the hillside. The building features a central internal amphitheatre space. It features tiered seating connecting levels 1 to 2, which can accommodate a whole level cohort (up to 280 students). The building has been designed with flexibility in mind, so the space can accommodate a range of functions.
The building form is a two storey white-rendered box with angled reveals to the windows, sitting atop a single storey brick-clad base, which grounds the building into the concrete hard landscaping. The building features angled pop-out window bays.
Internally the material palette contrasts with the crisp external material palette, as warmer materials come into play, assisting with acoustics and presenting a more appropriate teaching environment. Timber features as the balustrading of the amphitheatre. Acoustic baffles hang from the ceiling also clad in perforated timber, like upturned pyramids, or “stalactites.”
