Overview
In 2019, the School engaged Architectural Planning Studio (APS) to develop a master plan for future development and also to tie the existing structures into a more coherent whole. The result was a comprehensive Strategic Development Plan for future infrastructural growth. Luckily most of the buildings had incorporated an existing aesthetic of red facebrick and green Chromadek roofs so they were not too disparate, although the overall layout was a bit disjointed and piecemeal. Graham Cochrane and Mike Durran from APS looked at the way students, staff and parents moved around the campus and came up with a plan to connect the buildings and make the pedestrian flow more fluid and efficient.
By far the most significant, game changing and important project, however, has been the creation of The Heart of the School. Previously the campus had been a bit disjointed and the flow of student pedestrian traffic a little awkward. What is currently the centre of the school was previously a parking space and an unused grassy slope, with established Msasa trees relatively unnoticed in flower beds.
In APS’s Master Development Plan, the architects had drawn a big heart in the centre of the campus and declared that the school lacked a central space – a heart. The vision sketched out by APS was handed over to Kerry-Ann Goddard, landscape architect extraordinaire, who later brought on Tiffany Cooper, in order to realise the vision. The Head, Leigh Reilly, explained that “The brief was to build us a placemaking space in the centre of our school. It needed to be a space that was multifunctional, that better connected the Chapel, Art Block and Music Centre to the rest of the campus, had a focal point, and integrated and celebrated the existing important features: the Msasas, the sun dial memorial and the Debbie Kearns fountain.” With this brief, weekly meetings, involving APS, the Executive and members of the Board’s Infrastructure and Services Committee, were held over several months as the complex design was brought to fruition.
The new Heart of the School fulfils all the desired functions and requirements. It has reinvented the space and created new features for the present and the future development of the school. It’s situated in front of the existing admin, dining room and classroom block and visitors are designed to pass by on their way to the reception – in addition students use the space every day. The entrance portal to the admin building and reception is now quite grand and follows a more logical flow.