Victorian School Building Authority
Mt Waverley Secondary College STEAM
A new STEAM learning centre fostering cross-discipline collaboration and connection
With existing outdated facilities effectively siloing STEAM disciplines and providing suboptimal learning environments, Mt Waverley Secondary College needed a purpose-built centre that would support and showcase its modern STEAM curriculum; an environment that would foster sharing and cross-pollination of ideas, skills and disciplines.
On this project, BKK invested in an engagement-rich design journey that successfully delivered a new two-storey STEAM Centre on the Mt Waverley Secondary College Senior Campus. The Centre houses learning spaces for technology, visual communications, arts and science, shaping an environment that embodies connection and inspires collaboration.
Big Picture Thinking
A narrative of connection was a key driver for the masterplanning and design. We purposefully sited the new facility on the northern perimeter of an existing central thoroughfare, seeking to enhance campus cohesion and provide a much-needed centrepiece for the northern zone of the campus. Working on a sloping site, the project revitalised north-south connections via a landscaped forecourt that inclusively traverses levels and creates a gateway to the new STEAM Centre.
We designed a U-shaped building that wraps around a central courtyard, with circulation zones pushed to the exterior to maximise usable space. Discipline-specific learning areas span both levels, designed for optimal adjacency and connection with ancillary spaces to support simultaneous use by students from multiple disciplines. The entire environment is defined by functionality alongside transparency and display, showcasing learning in different ways in order to inspire an ethos of sharing, collaboration, and curiosity among students.
Collaboration and Humility
The relationships we developed with the College Principal, heads of department, and teachers truly shaped the quality of the outcome. We led them through an engagement process, which included undertaking site visits to other new STEAM centres and facilitating collaborative workshops to understand equipment needs, detailed requirements, and what was most important to them. Through this process, we discovered that storage and visual connections were key concerns, and we were able to identify which subjects and activities could share spaces and which needed to be adjacent or separate. We designed the floor plans and spatial relationships based on these insights and made every square metre work as hard as possible.
The project also benefited from a collaborative design relationship with GLAS Landscape Architects. We designed the building and landscaped forecourt together to achieve an integrated outcome. Rain gardens assist with civil drainage, mesh panels to external stairways are adorned by hardy climbing plants, and circulation, access, and dwell zones effectively connect with the building envelope.
Playfulness and Innovation
The STEAM Centre design hinges on transparency and porosity; putting the activity, equipment and creation process on show. We arranged the learning spaces by function, with technology and fabrication spaces located on the ground floor and visual arts and science learning on the upper level. Adjacent unprogrammed spaces, including wide corridors, balcony/courtyard, exhibition and collaboration zones and external circulation spaces, support dynamic learning flows, providing purposeful and chance opportunities for interaction and collaboration.
At the heart of the building, sits the Fab Lab, an acoustically and mechanically isolated high-tech fabrication space that has been fully wrapped in windows in order to place the learning on display. The Fab Lab required carefully considered services coordination, to incorporate exhaust arms that could be moved around to accommodate various equipment needs and to effectively conceal the bulk of the ductwork behind feature green hexagonal acoustic tiles.
Leadership and Advocacy
As a STEAM facility that brings together future-focused creative and science-based problem-solving and thinking, it was imperative that the building demonstrated strong environmental performance. At BKK, sustainability is always part of the conversation, and we utilise the design process as an opportunity to grow awareness with our clients and their communities of the broad benefits of an integrated and tailored approach to sustainable design. This project demonstrates how small, considered moves create great impact. Within the strict budget, we were able to achieve 62No. off 550W photovoltaic panels installed on the building’s roof, as well as three rainwater tanks to the rear of the building, reticulated to grey water for plumbing. We made the most of natural light and ventilation, via operable windows which we shaded to reduce heat load and placed at a height to maximise light whilst providing ample wall space for display.
Transformative Places, Holistic Benefits
The STEAM Centre has ticked all of the boxes for the College, with staff and students alike benefiting from the endless potential the spaces offer. The building has shifted campus circulation flows, reducing the north/south divide, and the Fab Lab sits at the core of the Centre and the heart of the school, effectively advocating for the benefits of cohesive STEAM learning.
BKK’s big thinking approach, teamed with our joyful and detail oriented design ethos has delivered a facility that embodies the Mt Waverley Secondary College vision and challenges staff and students to think bigger together.