Brief Summary of the Project
The Foxford Innovation Centre is a bold architectural statement, redefining St Columba’s College’s identity at its prominent Buckley Street intersection in Essendon. This cutting-edge STEAM facility serves 1,040 students with 16 specialist learning environments, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and hands-on, inquiry-driven education.

The three-level structure seamlessly integrates advanced digital infrastructure with adaptable, modular spaces, ensuring pedagogical flexibility for evolving curricula. A sculptural precast concrete facade, combined with expansive glass-walled classrooms, promotes transparency and connectivity, enhancing student engagement and cross-disciplinary exchange. The central atrium, with tiered seating, functions as both a circulation space and an interactive learning hub, while outdoor terraces and sheltered breakout zones extend education beyond traditional classrooms.

Rooted in sustainability and progressive architectural vision, the Foxford Innovation Centre optimises natural light, employs high-performance materials, and implements passive environmental strategies. As one of the first gas-free STEAM education projects in Australia, the centre relies entirely on electrification, reinforcing its commitment to reducing carbon emissions and embracing renewable energy. Balancing innovation with respect for the school’s heritage fabric, it establishes a new benchmark for contemporary STEAM education design.

Demonstrating the Brief and Progressive Architecture
The Foxford Innovation Centre embodies St Columba’s College’s vision for a dynamic, future-focused STEAM facility. Extensive stakeholder engagement ensured alignment with contemporary pedagogical needs, resulting in a spatially fluid and technologically integrated learning environment.

The design fosters visibility and collaboration across disciplines through transparent learning spaces that encourage interaction and knowledge exchange. Adaptable breakout areas and tiered seating within the central atrium support informal learning and group engagement, reinforcing inquiry-based education methodologies.

Architecturally, the centre asserts a contemporary identity while maintaining harmony with the existing campus. The rhythmic precast concrete facade and warm material palette create cohesion between the new and old, enhancing the campus’s urban presence. As a fully electrified, gas-free facility, the centre reflects a progressive approach to sustainable design, ensuring a future-proofed, low-carbon learning environment. This fusion of functionality and architectural expression positions the Foxford Innovation Centre as a forward-thinking model of STEAM education design.

Community and Cultural Consultation
The Foxford Innovation Centre was shaped through a rigorous consultative process, ensuring alignment with student, educator, and community needs. Regular workshops with St Columba’s College leadership and teaching staff informed the spatial design, ensuring pedagogical alignment and a student-centred approach.

Respecting the campus’s heritage, the design team collaborated with school advisors to integrate a material palette that harmonises with the existing built environment. The warm-toned precast concrete facade complements the traditional existing brick structures, while the building’s massing reinforces the school’s civic presence along Buckley Street.

Environmental considerations were central to the consultation process, resulting in outdoor learning spaces, passive design strategies, and a site-responsive architectural language. The commitment to sustainability, including the centre’s gas-free operation, was a key outcome of this engagement, ensuring that the Foxford Innovation Centre is not only a state-of-the-art learning facility but also an enduring, environmentally responsible architectural addition to St Columba’s College.

Design: LiFE Architecture and Urban Design
Interior Design: Sora Interiors
Photography: Kane Jarrod