Competition Entries

A SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE

In 1994 the Ministry of Education initiated a design competition for a hypothetical new primary school. The aim of the competition was to explore innovative concepts for a New Zealand school at a time when rapid population growth was creating a need for the first totally new schools in many years. Our entry was awarded second prize!!!

We based our design on an imaginary, but typical, suburban site surrounded by brick and tile spec housing. The buildings are laid out in an orderly geometric fashion in such a way that they can be constructed in stages whilst maintaining the overall concept at all times. This layout also creates a variety of well-defined outdoor spaces between building wings with seating and shade. A library forms the symbolic heart to the school and teaching rooms radiate out from this.

The buildings are intended to have a domestic scale in keeping with the surrounding houses but also evoke a "civic" quality from the street to create a sense of permanence and community focus. External materials, brick walls and tile roofs, are chosen to reinforce these intentions.