Warriappendi School
A beautiful bush and river setting is Warriappendi Secondary School’s new home. The site, part of a masterplan to relocate the school and a local bowling club due to the Torrens to Darlington project, is located in Thebarton along the banks of Karrawirra Parri (River Torrens) and provided the unique opportunity to establish a welcoming, safe, and inviting education facility with connection to Country forming the foundation of the campus experience.
The new school is home to 150 students across years 7 - 12, and includes a new learning and administration building, a new gymnasium, and a range of landscaped outdoor play spaces and yarning circles. The overall design placed a strong emphasis on visual and physical indoor-to-outdoor connections, enabling students to experience the landscape and to freely move between spaces in a safe and flexible learning environment.
The new school building is an adaptive reuse of the existing 3-level commercial laboratory building on the site. Significant analysis and careful planning was needed by the team to ensure the building alterations were feasible, but also that the conversion achieved cultural educational and compliance requirements. To successfully realise the school's needs, we proposed a range of adaptations to the existing building, including new stair voids to open up the spaces and connect levels, additional outdoor terraced spaces and external canopies for shade and shelter.
The new gym building provide students with a much-needed space to play and gather - designed to host whole-of-school assemblies when needed. The simple and efficient layout incorporates a main hall space, storage and fitness areas, amenities and teacher preparation spaces, while providing students with a constant visual connection to the bush and river settings on all sides.
The use of colour, curves, natural textures and translucent and tactile materiality throughout the buildings and landscape provides the backdrop for the school's unique identity to shine through, with school signage and public art commissioned on key building facades.
The overall design celebrates culture and community, and through design collaboration has created an active and vibrant learning environment where nature is not just a backdrop to the campus, but instead becomes an integral part of the schools identity and the student learning experience.
