The Centre for Science & Art, Abbotsleigh Senior School

What makes the Abbotsleigh Centre for Science & Art a standout, is its commitment to the school’s pedagogical aspirations and its respectful handling of a delicate site. A building that’s highly in tune with nature, that connects its occupants to their surrounds and offers flexible learning and gathering spaces to bring the school community together. The brief was to design a purpose-built centre for teaching science and art, in step with the school’s pedagogical focus on STEAM, and its campus master plan for adding new state-of-the-art facilities with minimal site impact. In addition to inspirational learning environments encourage excellence, the school wanted new congregational spaces that support the school’s community outreach and patronage. The site was severely constrained, bordering a highway to its north, two heritage buildings at either end, with a number of significant trees which the client was keen to keep. This had implications for the form and massing pf the Centre, leaving no clear path to a typical school building. To ensure minimal disruption to the trees we used Point Cloud surveys to precisely map every branch, leaf and root. This process led to the building envelope weaving around the trees, its massing stepped down so as not to overwhelm the adjacent heritage buildings. The result was two organically shaped wings of three storeys are joined centrally by a curved glass-enclosed walkway, creating new lines of sight on campus, and a ‘meeting of minds’ in this shared event / exhibition space. The program resolves a complex site and ambitious pedagogical brief, with floor plates carefully set out, both on grade and partially buried to maintain relative scale with adjacent heritage buildings. The larger science wing contains 12 laboratories and an auditorium. The smaller art wing contains three workshops and a sub-terranean photography studio. Multi-use assembly spaces, staff and meeting rooms and informal breakout areas are distributed through both wings, with unprogrammed public spaces adjoining the glass bridge at either end, fostering dialogue between art and science exhibitions and happenings. Externally the buildings share a material language of glass walls, zinc mansard roofing, terracotta cladding and vertical screening battens which echo the rhythm of the trees. Interiors are more distinct, speaking to the functionality of each wing. The science wing expresses its material construction with exposed structure and services, while the all-white art studios harness natural light in inventive ways with a large south-facing skydome and windows looking into the treetops. Sustainable design across the two wings has maximised natural light and limited heat load. The Centre benefits from the shading of mature trees, and screening of the glass facades with terracotta ‘battens’ increased insulation to the western elevation. The art wing’s skylights are oriented south for soft, diffused light. The science wing is equipped with rooftop solar PV arrays generating power. Internal and external glass louvres deliver natural ventilation.