Cox Architecture designed a the students housing scheme Learning in Residence for the Wesley College, a boarding school located in Melbourne, Australia.

Distinct from typical boarding halls, Wesley Learning in Residence scheme responds to the school’s vision for a more independent, residential style of accommodation for senior students. Conceived as a ‘village’, the project consists of eight student residences, each housing up to sixteen students, carefully positioned to create a porous ring of deliberately domestic forms that encircles a landscaped heart-space, offering residents both connection to and retreat from the openness of the Glen Waverley campus.

From the macro scale of the village within the campus, the residences are broken down into a series of perceptible groupings designed to create a manageable scale for students to comfortably slot into. The planning of the residences supports this intent, giving the students areas in which they can gather with their cohort, but always encouraging the students to roam out into the communal outdoor and recreation spaces.

Architect: Cox Architecture
Photographer: Shannon McGrath