In 2016, DesignInc partnered with Lacoste+Stevenson and BMC2 to win an international Design Excellence competition run by the NSW Department of Education.
The brief was for a new school on the existing Ultimo Public School site, expanding the student capacity from 285 to 800 and introducing new community, childcare, and library facilities.
The winning design presents a new educational model for an inner-Sydney primary school.
The architecture, landscape, and interiors blend to create sanctuary, engagement, and connection to support the next generation of learners.
Nestled on an inner-city site between multi-storey apartment buildings, warehouses, an arterial road, and parklands, the new Ultimo Public School cleverly achieves both sanctuary and connection.
From the outset, the design team applied a deep understanding of emerging education pedagogues—such as student-based learning—to the design process.
This included dissolving the classroom/playground divide, providing flexible learning spaces that expand into playgrounds, and the inclusion of verandahs and walkways.
With this project, architecture, landscape, and interior design work together to create a healthy, adaptable, and enchanting learning environment to support the next generation of students.
Civic Connections
One of the design challenges was responding to the varied uses adjacent to the school: apartments, warehouses, a busy road, and a park.
The terraced layout allows the design to fit with the scale and building typologies of neighbours on all sides – an open and modest scale along Jones Street reinforces the character of the street, the robust façade on Quarry Street responds to the brick warehouse building to the north, and the Wattle Street façade screens heavy traffic.
Learning To Learn
Flexible learning spaces and strong connections between the indoors and outdoors support a range of education styles, encouraging children and teachers to explore diverse ways of interacting.
Ultimo Public School seamlessly blends imagination and nature to enrich the students’ learning journey.
A Layered Landscape
In this dense urban setting, the landscape is key to providing sanctuary and respite.
A large proportion of the students live in surrounding apartments with very limited access to natural environments and play spaces.
The teaching staff had observed a below-average gross motor skill development in the students, so a key part of the brief was to bring the natural environment into the school.
Taking advantage of the steep slope, the school is arranged as a series of terraces.
To maximise useable space, all terraces and rooftops become gardens or play spaces—vegetation, equipment, environmental graphics, nature play, and water features combine to enhance sensory experiences and promote engagement, relaxation, and activity for the school community.
Three distinct landscaped playgrounds terrace down the centre of the site, each featuring vegetation specific to the microclimatic conditions.
Abundant and layered plantings, visual connection between the three terraces and generous openings to the sky allow students a connection to nature in this highly urbanised area of the city.
A fourth playground—the COLA—on the uppermost level, provides all-weather covered outdoor play and learning opportunities.
Mesh screens with vines growing through them allow solar access, ventilation, and views over the adjacent street, while also offering privacy and protection.
A ‘DNA linking chain’ pathway connects all four levels, operating as a running track with distance markers and an exercise station.
It also connects outdoor learning and breakout spaces
Courtyards feature natural rock outcrops, rainforest landscaped intimate courts, a three-level library and learning-common that serves as an acoustic buffer to the arterial roadway of Wattle Street and a grand community-oriented COLA on the upper level.
The double-storey hall has a large plate-glass outlook to the mature trees and parklands of Wentworth Park.
Stairways and pathways encourage incidental social interaction, and the whole school can be easily surveyed and supervised through clear lines of sight, which promotes a feeling of safety and security.
Community Facilities
Connecting with the community is an important part of the school vision.
Key facilities—such as the COLA, school hall, basketball court, middle courtyard and adjacent learning spaces—can be booked outside school hours, ensuring the school is a vibrant new space for the whole community.
Sustainability
Environmentally sustainable features include reused photovoltaic cells and a displacement ventilation system, where outside air is supplied below the library floor level and is relieved at a high level for chimney-effect ventilation through the three-storey library and general learning spaces.
Some sustainability features have become learning opportunities for kids, such as digital displays that display energy consumption, solar power generation, water harvesting, and the like.
Other sustainability initiatives include:
- Thermal mass and night purging of warm air
- Sub-floor, slow displacement ventilation
- Natural light and fan-assisted cross ventilation
- Rain Water Harvesting
- Solar photovoltaic cells and LED light fittings
- Double glazed windows
- Deep overhangs to maximise shading
- Low energy gas heating
- Sensor-activated outdoor lighting
Project Details
Project Budget – $30,000,000
Completion Date – 2021
Building Levels – 5
Project Team
Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design (Lead)
DesignInc
DesignInc is an award-winning architectural and design practice with offices in Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney in Australia.
Their multidisciplinary teams are united with a common vision to make a difference to the health and happiness of people’s lives through the quality of the environments they help create.
Architecture (Architects in Collaboration)
Lacoste + Stevenson
Lacoste + Stevenson is an award-winning creative practice specialising in art, architecture, and urban design established by Thierry Lacoste and David Stevenson in 1997.
Architecture (Architects in Collaboration)
bmc2
bmc2 is a Paris-based architecture and urban planning firm managed since 2001 by Arnaud Bical and Laurent Courcier. They were joined in 2016 by Yannick Gourvil and Eric Hardy architects.
Photography
Brett Boardman
Brett is a well-established commercial and architectural photographer based in Sydney.
Photo Gallery
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Design © 2022 Lacoste + Stevenson; BMC2. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2022 Brett Boardman. All Rights Reserved.
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