Hayball completed the Braemar College Middle School with respect for its natural surroundings and interactive learning in Woodend, Australia.

Hayball has been working closely with Braemar College on a new campus Masterplan. Stage one involved the development of a new campus to provide a stand-alone Middle School for students in years 5-8.

The new campus celebrates education and social interaction, responds to the rural context while respecting distant views to surrounding natural landmarks. It addresses the challenges of the existing steeply sloped Macedon Campus: managing fire risk for its community, providing contemporary learning environments, and allowing equity of access to all spaces.

The brief to facilitate the Middle Years learning program, centres around communities of learners within a ‘learning landscape’ of interconnected spaces, resulted in a design that delivers a highly efficient, fluid plan arrangement, connecting general learning and specialist spaces via a central learning common, populated by a series of informal settings for individual and group engagement.

The interior volumes of the shed form flow directly out into the vast rural landscape. External learning environments are central to both the curriculum and connection to place.

Architect: Hayball
Photography: Emily Bartlett