05/07/2023
AWARD FOR EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE 2023
ST CUTHBERT'S EARLY YEARS CENTRE | MORRISON & BREYTENBACH ARCHITECTS
We are delighted to receive this Australian Institute of Architects Tasmanian Chapter award. Here is the Jury citation:
This project evokes an immediate sense of calm, stillness, and innate warmth. The new work of the Early Years classrooms is sited prudently on an underutilised corner, in order to both shield against the highway and project the interiors toward views of kunanyi/Mount Wellington and timtumili minanya/River Derwent.
Children can nestle into and inhabit spaces scaled precisely for them. The typical arrangements and hierarchies of the ‘classroom’ are ameliorated through a variety of spatial techniques, allowing teachers to respond freely to the needs of the day. Sliding internal and external doors set up a visual sequence of enfilades from internal rooms to external gardens. Nature and garden features are enmeshed, recognising the third teacher of nature-based play. From the interior, it is not immediately evident where the inside and outside begin and end.
A restrained natural material palette, largely of plywood wall panelling applied consistently throughout, provides an encompassing sense of warmth. The technical rigour, attention to acoustic separation and sustainable performance of the building enables one to forget that the centre fronts onto the busy road.
Typical aspects of early learning do not occur here; rather what prevails is a profound sense of quiet, supportive nurturing. Photo: Gabriel Morrison
