Architecture firms Grimshaw and BVN designed the first high-rise public school in the Australian state of New South Wales.
The proposal will combine Arthur Phillip High School (APHS) and Parramatta Public School (PPS), two schools in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, into a 14-story building that can accommodate 2,000 high schoolers and 1,000 primary school students, according to ArchDaily.
The concept is based around the Schools-within-Schools (SWIS) concept, which which puts a focus on smaller, more personalized units across multiple grades. The school is made up of “home bases,” consisting of students of varying ages. The home bases will hold 280 students in the primary school and 330 in secondary.
“The school buildings act as the social infrastructure for the transformation of individuals and their communities through learning, inclusivity, and outreach, with wellbeing and playfulness arising out of the integration of the physical and the environmental,” Grimshaw Partner Andrew Cortese said in a statement.
The secondary school will have mezzanines, outdoor learning terraces, and science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics facilities. The primary school will have outdoor learning and play space.
To create a sense of community, the bases will have open spaces and comfortable furniture.
Related Stories
| Nov 26, 2013
Construction costs rise for 22nd straight month in November
Construction costs in North America rose for the 22nd consecutive month in November as labor costs continued to increase, amid growing industry concern over the tight availability of skilled workers.
| Nov 25, 2013
Building Teams need to help owners avoid 'operational stray'
"Operational stray" occurs when a building’s MEP systems don’t work the way they should. Even the most well-designed and constructed building can stray from perfection—and that can cost the owner a ton in unnecessary utility costs. But help is on the way.
| Nov 19, 2013
Top 10 green building products for 2014
Assa Abloy's power-over-ethernet access-control locks and Schüco's retrofit façade system are among the products to make BuildingGreen Inc.'s annual Top-10 Green Building Products list.
| Nov 18, 2013
ASSA ABLOY, CertainTeed team up to tackle classroom acoustics
The new alliance has uncovered easily accessible solutions to address these acoustical challenges and reduce the sound reverberation that further complicates noise issues.
| Nov 15, 2013
Greenbuild 2013 Report - BD+C Exclusive
The BD+C editorial team brings you this special report on the latest green building trends across nine key market sectors.
| Nov 13, 2013
Installed capacity of geothermal heat pumps to grow by 150% by 2020, says study
The worldwide installed capacity of GHP systems will reach 127.4 gigawatts-thermal over the next seven years, growth of nearly 150%, according to a recent report from Navigant Research.
| Nov 5, 2013
Net-zero movement gaining traction in U.S. schools market
As more net-zero energy schools come online, school officials are asking: Is NZE a more logical approach for school districts than holistic green buildings?
| Oct 30, 2013
11 hot BIM/VDC topics for 2013
If you like to geek out on building information modeling and virtual design and construction, you should enjoy this overview of the top BIM/VDC topics.
| Oct 28, 2013
Urban growth doesn’t have to destroy nature—it can work with it
Our collective desire to live in cities has never been stronger. According to the World Health Organization, 60% of the world’s population will live in a city by 2030. As urban populations swell, what people demand from their cities is evolving.
| Oct 18, 2013
Researchers discover tension-fusing properties of metal
When a group of MIT researchers recently discovered that stress can cause metal alloy to fuse rather than break apart, they assumed it must be a mistake. It wasn't. The surprising finding could lead to self-healing materials that repair early damage before it has a chance to spread.
