Situated 20km from Melbourne’s CBD, St Peter Chanel School, Deer Park has engaged Crosier Scott Architects to reimagine the educational facility to produce a modern facility in accordance with the cultural, historical and religious significance of the school and its surrounds.
The design aims to provide St Peter Chanel with inclusive spaces that encourage and facilitate learning of life skills such as problem solving, resilience, spatial knowledge, creativity, flexibility and change over time. With enrollments increasing each year the redevelopment of the school was paramount to future growth. This redevelopment brought changes to administration, amenities, staff lounge, classrooms, and IT seminar space.
To fulfil the schools vision to ‘help students develop a personal relationship with God while being engaged in a rich learning environment’ CSA saw to reconfigure existing facilities and provide additions where necessary. Great consideration was made to enhance pedagogy to accommodate people from different cultures, language, groups, socio economic backgrounds, learning difficulties and disabilities. With these factors in mind CSA produced flexible learning spaces using mixed materials, where glazed windows and doors provide a visual and physical link between spaces in addition to seamless supervision. The consideration of sustainable architectural practices saw the introduction of natural climate control, energy efficient electrics, use of renewable resources, collection and re-use of rainwater, and using recycled building materials where appropriate. Now complete St Peter Chanel School provides their students and staff with the flexibility to teach in varying environments that allow for future expansion.