32
Vision Magazine
HEAVY HANDED-FACADISM IS STUDIOUSLY
AVOIDED AND THE RESULT IS A STACCATO
BRILLIANCE RENDERED IN STEEL AND GLASS.
I
n an ideal world all secondary schools would
have facilities the equal of Camberwell Grammar
School. Situated in the leafy borough of the same
name in Melbourne’s generally prosperous southeast, the school is a handsome marriage of old
money and new.
Many suburbs are under stress from super-sized
Georgian and Tuscan reproductions on allotments
never intended for such scale. These displays are
reminders that big budgets might deliver quantity,
but rarely quality, and it’s why we can marvel that
the funding for CGS’s new Wheelton Centre is so
well targeted.
The school can be well pleased that its architects
have pursued a Modernist strand in their pursuit of
streamlined elegance. The centre, for senior school
students, embraces a tired, mid-’90s building, with
sculptural, surgical reinvention.
Heavy handed-facadism is studiously avoided and
the result is a staccato brilliance rendered in steel
and glass. The result continues a design philosophy
established when Peter Crone Architects was
appointed to the school eight years ago.
Respect for adjoining residential properties,
the new three-storey addition comprises a tiered
arrangement to create a vibrant relationship with
the existing buildings and grounds. The new facility
boasts 21 general purpose classrooms, video
conference/lecture theatre and art studios.
Right
Rather than treated as dead, dumb space,
staircases at either end and internally are
fully connected daylight filled.
Modernist School
Project architect Robert Tedesco of Peter Crone
Architects discusses the art and science of
immersive learning.
How complex was it to absorb an old building into
the new without the result appearing makeshift?
Inserting a new building into a large existing one is
difficult when you set high standa ɑ̸