Fitzroy Community School - Creative Space, Thornbury, Melbourne

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Baracco + Wright Architects and Richard Stampton Architects were commissioned to design the new Fitzroy Community School Creative Space in Thornbury. School principal Timothy Berryman wanted the architects to make a school that did not appear institutional and offered flexible spaces. The new two-storey school was based on the verandah typology and built on the legacy of modernist Australian architects such as Robin Boyd. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The inter-related spaces of this building reflect the teaching approach of the school. Every activity is treated as a learning opportunity and the informal non-institutional setting enhances this approach. The verandah - used for circulation and to provide shade, shelter and a protective layer from a busy road - is a buffer space that can also accommodate plants. The result is a 'warm timber box' clad in translucent polycarbonate, a building that functions on numerous levels that go well beyond a typical classroom.Quoting from 2012 AIA Victorian Chapter Award Jury's peer review comments: '[the design is] a complex spatial arrangement of teaching opportunities ... disctinctive settings are entirely non-institutional and must be a joy for the students". RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: 'Fitzroy Community School - creative space' received a commendation in the Public Architecture category of the 2012 Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Victorian architecture Awards. The work was exhibited in fortyfivedownstairs gallery with all other projects in the running for the Awards. The exhibition was a showcase by the Australian Institute of Architects Award to recognise outstanding architectural endeavour. The work was peer reviewed in Architecture Australia magazine (Shelley Penn, 'Fitzroy Community School Creative Space', vol. 100, no. 5, September/October 2011, pp. 49 - 54) and in The Age (Stephen Crafti, 'Domesticity anchors class act', 21 March 2012).