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17 April 2018

By Stephen Crafti

Teaching methods have changed significantly since the 1950s, when St Michael’s Parish School in Ashburton came into existence. While the former school building was well built, it couldn’t ‘morph’ into more relevant learning spaces simply by moving a few walls.

'It wasn’t sustainable, in terms of its orientation, and was particularly hot during the summer months,' says architect Garry Thompson, managing director of Y2 Architecture, who first started this project almost eight years ago. ‘It’s been a discussion that included the parish, teachers, parents and students,’ he adds.

Planned in two stages, with the first one recently completed, a new learning centre was required with a move away from the traditional method of a teacher standing in front of a blackboard. Now, the model is mixed classrooms of varying sizes, a variety of learning spaces and, importantly, a sense of transparency that goes well beyond to the back of a classroom.

‘In the 1950s, you could say there was an ‘egg-crate’ arrangement, with separate classrooms off a central corridor,’ says Thompson, who, with his team, initially examined the possibility of rejigging the existing classrooms.

Y2 Architecture ended up demolishing the former classrooms, but fitting into the building’s original footprint, complete with a protected north-facing courtyard to one side (as the school abuts busy High Street, such a protected enclosure was seen as valuable). However, this time there are tangible links through the school grounds with two-thirds of the school developed and the remainder forming stage two of its development.

One of the starting points for Y2 Architecture’s design was the parish community’s motto: ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ Clearly, Ashburton, with its local shopping strip, has a village feel, but it’s no longer a sleepy neighbourhood. There’s an image of a child holding a seedling, with the words ‘Touching the sky’, implying ‘educational growth’.

‘We workshopped these ideas with students, as well as with other stakeholders, and came up with the idea of a treehouse,’ says Thompson, who had in his mind not only the rudimentary treehouse but the sense of enjoyment and escape that it brings. As one enters the new building, juxtaposed to the parish church built in 1947, there are two loosely conceived ‘treehouses’ that are expressed in a double-height void across two levels.

Each treehouse, clad in hardwood, has two studio-style spaces on the ground level and two on the first floor. At ground level, there’s a sense of sitting between the gnarled roots of a tree, while the upper-level studios, with their irregular-shaped windows, form a ‘branch’ to the studio spaces.

There’s also ‘camp fire’ spaces, nestled below the staircase and a theatre where the primary school students, can create their own radio and even television programs. And yes, there are still desks, but these are more table-like, formed as ‘bites’ that can be separated into various parts.

This article was originally published in 'The Saturday Age' 14 April 2018.