Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School (PEGS) Music House

The Music House is one of a series of projects undertaken by McBride Charles Ryan (MCR) for Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School (PEGS). It is located on the PEGS Junior Boys’ campus and sits adjacent to the Year 5 and 6 building, a project completed by MCR in 2009. The 2009 project strove to engage the child’s imagination, juxtaposing the extruded federation home silhouette with a cloudlike interior. The Music House creates an analogous juxtaposition between the existing Victorian home and its lyrical extension. Involved in the project was a significant refurbishment to the existing building. The approach was to not only update the building for contemporary teaching but celebrate the layers of history accumulated over its life. Ornamental plaster ceilings were revealed, stained and lacquered woodwork was refurbished and timber doors from various periods were repurposed. Characteristics of the existing building are carried through to the addition, most evident in the patterned glazed brickwork. Included in the design are various playful abstractions intended to engage the curious mind of students. In plan, the undulating line of the northern façade frames an outdoor play space. The arches are generated by the line of a frozen soundwave, passed through the northern elevation. These openings create the covered outdoor space of a verandah, providing passive ventilation and an informal space for encounter. In the verandah, the white weatherboard cladding of the existing building is contrasted with the piano key plywood wall lining, a moment of slippage between old and new. The large classroom doubles as a space for students to perform for parents and guests, requiring it to be beautiful and memorable.