In consultation with Parade College in Bundoora, our task was to represent a 21st century Christian Brothers school and to inspire its students. The tryptich was chosen as the basis for the design response, and this symbolic form became the overarching motif for the new addition. But unlike the traditional representation in historic examples, our tryptich was applied as a super-graphic, with the triangular motif repeated, rescaled, and morphed throughout the façade, as well as the plan and structure of the new connecting bridge.
CHT Architects conveyed the school's history and pedagogy by designing a teaching common that would address both its identity and encourage a heightened level of engagement with its aesthetics. While the existing campus is comprised of mostly chocolate brown brick modernist façades, the new Callan Wing extension purposely breaks from the existing aesthetic with a heavily-patterned, colourful and graphic skin. The façade creates a point of difference and signifies the school’s progression as a contemporary teaching facility.
CHT Architects adopted a graphical approach to the building's façade to distinguish it from the other buildings on the site. A diagonally shaped curtain wall system was adopted for the building's façade with a series of window units and aluminium panels with digitally printed graphics and perforated panels infilled between the framing members. The base structure was pre-cast concrete with its forms and shapes imitating the curtain wall façade above.
To bring the design into an Australian context, befitting of the site’s location in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, CHT Architects drew inspiration from the work of Howard Arkley, in particular his suburban series of paintings. Arkley reimagined suburban streetscapes and interiors as vibrant, highly patterned and colourful scenes. Similarly, the Callan Wing extension sits amid the Australian bush landscape, vibrant and eye-catching, at once a point of contrast and a compliment to the school’s commitment to teaching, reflecting and excelling.
The Callan Wing extension stands to inspire a poetic sense of imagination, creating a new identity for the school and engaging students and staff in unprecedented ways.
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