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.
![Senior Centre for St Bernard's College Baldasso Cortese](/getmedia/b0f1f95f-0761-4955-bf21-a549f4ed9a1d/Senior-Centre-for-St-Bernard-s-College-Baldasso-Cortese-1.aspx)
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.
![Senior Centre for St Bernard's College Baldasso Cortese](/getmedia/ad4d93dd-dc96-47c3-80e3-2b084ce3da4d/Senior-Centre-for-St-Bernard-s-College-Baldasso-Cortese-2.aspx)
![Senior Centre for St Bernard's College Baldasso Cortese](/getmedia/f5c7575e-8cef-4b6b-8a8d-8af5d85b031f/Senior-Centre-for-St-Bernard-s-College-Baldasso-Cortese-4.aspx)
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.
![Senior Centre for St Bernard's College Baldasso Cortese](/getmedia/f15a6cbb-1b1a-4b9d-bcb3-74ca5ff4b857/Senior-Centre-for-St-Bernard-s-College-Baldasso-Cortese-3.aspx)
![Senior Centre for St Bernard's College Baldasso Cortese](/getmedia/694f3e67-0e72-4f85-92b6-267626ebb47e/Senior-Centre-for-St-Bernard-s-College-Baldasso-Cortese-7.aspx)
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.
![Senior Centre for St Bernard's College Baldasso Cortese](/getmedia/8ce8dd7d-8f48-4dfc-9e64-7cf523a7df32/Senior-Centre-for-St-Bernard-s-College-Baldasso-Cortese-5.aspx)
![Senior Centre for St Bernard's College Baldasso Cortese](/getmedia/aa586880-bffa-4579-ba81-4a32e4bd608a/Senior-Centre-for-St-Bernard-s-College-Baldasso-Cortese-6.aspx)
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.”