Cox Architecture designed a new building for the Wesley College Moubray Street Music School with multiple spaces for gathering and creativity in Melbourne, Australia.

Wesley College’s Music School provides a central and dedicated facility for the St Kilda Road Campus to celebrate its creative arts education programme, bringing together the departments of music, performing arts and digital arts, while also a presenting a centrally located Middle School Hub that closely connects with existing built and landscaped elements.

Each department has varying requirements that dictate their location within the building and are expressed externally through different façade articulations. The size and type of internal spaces generates a rhythm across the exterior, working to complement the striking representation of the school’s crest that has been ‘carved’ into the facade of the building.

Offering exceptional facilities – with individual spaces for band rehearsals and recitals, as well as tuition studios, multi-purpose classrooms and recording studios, the design of the building offers a network of spaces outside of formal classroom settings for collaboration and allied activities that stimulate interaction and the exchange of information.

The building incorporates a purpose-built auditorium and stage with associated backstage, side stage, and fly tower as well as a dance studio and drama theatrette, new staff administration areas, recital spaces, a band room and additional flexible spaces suitable for teaching and rehearsal.

At the heart of the new building, an exceptional space referred to as the ‘sound chamber’ features a grand stair that also functions as an engaging and flexible events platform. Spaces within the building are connected by materiality, voids and a continuity of form, creating the feel of a single volume that morphs as it rises through the levels, to bring in natural light and provide access to each floor.

Architect: Cox Architecture
Photography: Sarah Louise