A special school on Brisbane’s westside welcomed a new three storey classroom building; launching the growing student population into new learning spaces including specialist classrooms, therapy and sensory rooms, a gym, a commercial kitchen, and dining areas along with spaces to cater for the expanding teaching staff.

In addition to the traditional learning environments, the new building has been carefully designed and considered to cater for enriching spaces of contemporary learning pedagogies such as the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program – extending beyond the cafe and kitchen located on the ground level and opening up to the north east where a series of vegetable gardens and fruit trees coincide on terraced concrete steps creating informal but inspiring learning opportunities.

The material palette adopted is low maintenance and robust while boasting a playful sense of creativity through the use of colour on the brickwork and various elements throughout the learning environment. Full height perforated screens along the generous northern facing verandas promote natural ventilation while providing security and sun shading as well as a custom feature laser cut screen reflecting the school’s motto and philosophy.