HASSELL has been appointed to design a new middle school at Kingston, Tasmania to accommodate 750 year 7-10 students. The design embraces the latest local and international pedagogical thinking with the flexible open plan learning environment moving away from the traditional classroom model.
The concept driving the design of the school is the sine wave – a metaphor of the simple harmonic motion of the sine wave, abstracting a mathematical phenomenon and relating it to the journey that the learner undertakes in the progression the student undertakes from Year 7 to Year 12. The design arranges buildings to provide connection, communication and minimise the impact on the stie context.
Sustainability is a key driver for the school and it is being benchmarked against the Green Star Education pilot tool, developed by the Green Building Council of Australia. Sustainable design features include green roofs, rain water harvesting and an in-slab hydronic heating system.
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Publications
The new school by Devkrishna Mistry, Fast Thinking (Australia), Spring 2008, pp. 88–89
