MLC Nicholas Learning Centre by McIldowie Partners Architects
Melbourne, Australia
Category
Education
Year
2019
Project Size
Large
Firm name
McIldowie Partners Architects
Firm address
Melbourne, Australia
Photographer
Peter Bennetts

Project Description

DESIGN AWARDS ENTRY CONTENT: The transition from junior school to secondary is a formative experience in any young person’s life. The single largest shift in their education to date. How then, should buildings nurture students through this transition? How can they support them to build connected communities in which students feel they belong, all the while, providing best practice learning spaces that develop skills for the 21st century and are adaptable & flexible enough to support innovation? For Mcildowie Partners Architects, these questions formed the basis of MLC’s Nicholas Learning Centre, the first project to emerge from the 2015 College Masterplan - a vision for the 10-year development of the Kew campus of Methodist Ladies’ College, in Melbourne’s inner east. Situated between MLC’s traditional primary and secondary schools the new building brings together previously separated Years 7 & 8 to create a school within a school, alongside the new landscape heart of the campus, the Principal’s Terrace. Arising from the demolition of two cramped wings of the previous Nicholas building, the new Centre provides four levels of learning spaces, a level each for Years 7 and 8, both with 10 learning spaces or home rooms. A shared innovative learning zone at the top of the building flows into the popular roof-garden for outdoor learning and at the building’s base, a formal administrative floor welcomes parent and visitors. The western edge of the new building— once ‘Grove Avenue’ a remnant of the evolution of the campus from a suburban street—is softened and opened to provide a gracious welcome to a natural flow of students and visitors into the new heart of the campus, the Principal’s Terrace. This has become a natural gathering place, overlooked by the Centre’s verandahs, providing shade, and an invitation to outdoor learning. “The diversion of Grove Avenue into the heart of the campus, not only becomes the formational gesture of the building but the key to unlocking the new landscaped heart as a destination on campus,” says John Mcildowie. In collaboration with the Middle School staff and the school management, the brief was to: • Define Years 7 & 8 as a precinct • Provide learning spaces for 500 students with each year level co-located on a single floor • Provide home rooms to nurture students through the transition from junior to secondary school • To develop learning spaces that: o Support a student-centered pedagogy o Increase student agency in learning o Promote 21st century skills such as collaboration and teamwork, underpinned by individual creativity o Provide opportunities for outdoor learning o Improve wellbeing practices With these objectives in mind, Mcildowie Partners design concept focused on the development of a learning community. A collection of spaces that would balance access into the heart of the campus with best practice learning and wellbeing to nurture students in the transition from junior to senior school. The building is broken down into a series of learning communities, clusters of 5 learning spaces or home rooms around a shared breakout space. Working closely with the teaching staff, and guided by research, Mcildowie Partners designed a variety of flexible and reconfigurable learning settings within each community so that students are placed at the centre of the learning environment. Oversized glass sliding doors and operable walls, enable team teaching or interdisciplinary/project based learning to occur side by side with more formal guided learning. This also ensures that each home group maintains ownership of its individual space which was deemed fundamental to improving wellbeing outcomes. The soft transition between the learning spaces and shared breakouts encourages students to access multiple areas within the learning space, empowering students to choose how and where they learn, emphasising the school’s student-centred pedagogy. Student agency is further enhanced by the variety of agile furniture throughout the learning spaces. This enables students to shift seamlessly between independent and collaborative group work, and from reflective to more directed learning. As such, the learning spaces are designed to be constantly in flux, changing throughout the day to meet the changing needs of staff and students. “There is no one single state of the building, it’s always in flux. It’s designed to give maximum flexibility across its lifespan so it can be reconfigured to adapt to changes in pedagogy & wellbeing, as well as changes in the use of the building,” John Mcildowie explains. In contrast to the Year 7 & 8 learning spaces across levels 2 and 3, the innovative zone on level four is aimed at encouraging groups to learn in an increasingly less structured interdisciplinary format. Purposeful learning settings such as presentation booths with video conferencing, a green screen filming studio, maker spaces and a seminar room are provided in a more open manner. A roof terrace, for outdoor learning, flows seamless from this collection of spaces to form a hub for project based collaborative work in the building and provides a platform for innovative teaching and learning practices as distinct from the flexible spaces provided below. Ultimately, it is the collection of these ambitious, student centered learning spaces that matter. Determined to improve student learning outcomes and teacher practices, the building sits at the heart of a growing field, delivering innovative architecture through the lens of innovative learning.