Dandenong High School

1. 2010 Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture Dandenong High School 92-106 Princes Highway, Dandenong Victoria, Australia 3175 Project of Distinction New Construction Hayball

2. Dandenong High School

3. DHS Site Plan

4. The three SWIS buildings of Dandenong High School -Stage One Community Environment: The design tackles the dilemma of the ‘large’ school by organising students within seven discrete SWIS (School Within a School) buildings. Defined outdoor spaces on the sunny northern edges of each SWIS building offer localized sites for learning and recreation. The grouping of substantial buildings in the landscape provides a clear departure from historic school typologies. Low scale, prefabricated models have been replaced with engaging, highly architectural buildings of a clearly contemporary idiom. The visibility and scale of the buildings creates a prominent presence in the public eye while repositioning the school as a community centre.

5. Entrance to one of the SWIS buildings Community Environment: The site planning creates open fissures of space between the buildings that invite community access. The spaces around the buildings are a clear and deliberate departure from the cloistered approaches of the past, and the careful treatment of the ground surface augments the sense that these are buildings to inhabit and move around. Public access to the performing arts and sports facilities ensure the school functions as a community hub. The careful treatment of outdoor spaces invites public habitation, while extended evening and weekend hours keep the school site filled with activity.

6. Interior spaces are adaptive to different learning settings Learning Environment: A primary driver for the school was achieving an environment where students feel ‘at home’, where inter-age mentoring can naturally occur and where functional student-teacher relationships can flourish. The capacity for this to occur relies on the grouping of students, the number of students in a group, and the legibility of one group from another. From the entire body of 2100 students, a cohort of 150 similarly-aged students was resolved as optimal. Floor plates were designed to accommodate one cohort across one level. Two-level buildings allowed for a senior cohort on the ground level and a junior cohort above, hence a master plan of seven SWIS buildings, each housing 300 students.

7. Open and adaptable zones afford a variety of uses Learning Environment: The resulting buildings are each expressed as two box elements, one black and one white, cranked apart at a fulcrum to create a triangular form. Internal planning strategies are devoted to the strengthening of each cohort’s sense of community. Learning studios were arranged around the building perimeter and each open onto a central learning common. Within the otherwise open common space, clearly defined nodes invite habitation or facilitate a particular activity (media studies, IT, informal gathering or quiet study). These ‘purposeful’ spaces afford legible areas of focus and intensity within the large spaces – representing an evolution of the unplanned open spaces that often result from a call for flexibility.

8. Learning can happen anywhere, indoors or out Learning Environment: Adaptable laboratory spaces house both art and science programs. By ‘compressing’ specialist curricula that are usually discrete, dynamism and energy pervades the learning environment. The ground floor laboratories feature work benches that extend beyond the building edge into outdoor learning spaces to encourage break-out. Clerestory glazing within the skewing roof plane provides increased levels of natural light and a sense of volume to the upper level.

9. White cladding is oriented toward the sun for thermal comfort Physical Environment - Resolved urban design strategies have informed the arrangement of buildings across the densely occupied site. The outdoor spaces between buildings are more ‘compressed’ than those commonly found in schools, affording a comfortable, ‘neighborhood’ quality. Increasing the density of occupation in one part of the site allows large open spaces, including playing fields, to remain intact. The project provides the case study for the AGBR ‘Green Star’ Education pilot. Key ESD initiatives include air tempering, water collection and re-use, improved natural lighting, environmentally preferable materials, building waste management and active monitoring of building performance.

10. Fresh air is drawn into the volume via horizontal grills and then tempered, reducing the need for artificial heating and cooling Physical Environment - Providing the building with ample fresh air, low window glare, access to views, thermal comfort, a favourable acoustic environment and other Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) features was a key driver for the project.

11. The scale of the school is human and relatable Planning Process: Dandenong High School, created by the amalgamation of three local schools, with over 2100 students, is located in the most disadvantaged urban area in Australia. Hayball has created a ‘student focused’ learning environment that mitigates the size of the combined campus. This was achieved by planning seven discrete SWIS (School Within a School) buildings that are not organised on the traditional school model. Instead, each building houses a cohort of students working across multiple disciplines.The school Principals undertook a research tour of leading secondary school facilities around the world.

12. A new curriculum greatly influenced planning and design Planning Process: None of the visited exemplars reflected the school’s vision so a new typology, expressing world’s best practice within the Dandenong context, was required. An intensive, 18 month briefing and design process ensued to evolve and clarify the school’s ideal and to understand the new curriculum delivery model. It involved teaching staff delegated from each of the 3 schools. The introduction of a new education model further compounded the challenge of combining the three campuses. The realities of the new paradigm have permeated every briefing discussion.

13. Floor plan - Ground

14. Floor plan – Level One

15. Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2010 Project Data

16. Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2010 Project Details