VISION 48 — GUIDING LIGHT
Does the school represent the wider transformational
shift in the way education is delivered?
It’s a paradigm shift. What we’re seeing at this school
now is that we’ve moved away from teacher centred
learning to student self directed learning. It’s about
offering flexible teaching skills and the ability to cater
for all students of different abilities, class groups and
environments. This is a parallel world now compared
to where we were at the start of this project.
Were there challenges that tested your resolve
and creativity?
The challenge was not to do with the briefing or anything
like that. It was a really challenging site to build on. It is
sited close to a main road and we weren’t allowed to
close that road that happens to be right up against the
school boundary. That provided many challenges for the
construction sequence. We earned our fees definitely in
delivering that on site, as the builder did. We had to close
the school a few times to lift concrete panels across
existing buildings. It was a challenging one to build,
but it’s there now.
“...the play of the light through
the windows and the coloured
glass is really how the building
connects to the outside.”
GARRY THOMPSON, ARCHITECT