Five years ago, vertical schools were among the greatest patrons of architectural investment in Australia. But is this still the case in 2025? More than tall structures, these buildings represent a typology that makes full use of high-value spaces to improve learning at all levels, often designed with broader efficiencies and community experiences in mind.

Where single-storey schools traditionally sprawled across suburban blocks, vertical schools are not simply compressed versions of their horizontal predecessors. They are deliberately designed for long-term flexibility, increased social interaction and greater opportunities for community integration, and represent a strategic investment in urban areas where land values and competition for other needs including quality open space are high.

Often located in repurposed multi-storey buildings, vertical schools consolidate teaching, administration, library services, and amenities in one city-centre site. At Adelaide Botanic High School, designed by COX Architecture with DesignInc, six levels within a repurposed 1960s building have been adapted. “The feedback we received from students and teachers during the first stage was invaluable.

Above: Adelaide Botanic High School, Stage 1 by COX Architecture with DesignInc. Stage 2 by COX Architecture. Photos Courtesy of COX Architecture. The first phase involved the partial conversion of a 1960s building and marked the delivery of South Australia’s first vertical secondary school.

It highlighted the need for quieter, smaller, and softer spaces—environments that support focus, wellbeing, and flexibility”, COX Architecture associate director Gianni Francisco says. Connected to a newly constructed seven-storey building, the expansion by COX Architecture opened in June 2025 and includes a rooftop terrace, collaborative and smaller classroom environments where disciplines are integrated and organised around a central atrium.

In Perth, a similar adaptive reuse is underway. Hassell architects is transforming a 1980s office tower into a school for St George’s Anglican Grammar with a staged design that not only reclaims urban space but adds vertical density. The redesign will be delivered in two stages: the almost complete initial phase focuses on repurposing the existing seven-storey building, while the second phase will see an additional eight storeys constructed above it by 2032.

Projects like Fortitude Valley State Secondary College in Brisbane also designed by COX Architecture—which opened in 2020—prioritise the flexible arrangement of rooms that connect with natural landforms and surrounding parkland. With covered landscaped areas on every level, the design “enables students to connect with and view their city, providing inspiring learning environments that support an ambitious project-based curriculum”, COX Architecture director Christina Cho comments. “At ground level, the design maximises green space on a constrained urban site, delivering much needed amenity and contributing to community life.”

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Above: The Shed by Wardle. Photo by John Gollings. Robust and enduring materials reference the site’s industrial past, while pointing it toward a low carbon future.

In some instances, vertical schools contribute back to the community by offering access to their own amenities outside of school hours. For example, South Melbourne Primary School by Hayball architects, has no fencing at ground level, despite its proximity to roads and tram lines, reflecting its core philosophy of shared public space. The building it occupies also houses a kindergarten, maternal child health service and indoor sports courts which are accessible to community via a separate entry and lift.

The tertiary sector has a similar approach to open, shared access. Monash and Melbourne universities “have opened up their campuses to be more welcoming to community, to enable greater opportunities for partnership and enterprise, and to be more responsive to the surrounding urban fabric”, strategic design consultant Jocelyn Chiew says.

Chiew oversaw the implementation of the Monash masterplan across four campuses at Australia’s largest university in the role of campus design, quality and planning manager from 2012 to 2020. Following that period, she was the director of city design at the City of Melbourne, overseeing end-to-end design of council’s own projects and design review for significant planning applications, state and council projects over five years to the end of 2024.

Chiew comments, "The shift toward vertical campuses emerges from converging pressures: the imperative for responsible, long-term stewardship of institutional estates, strategic outward-facing urban integration, and the necessity for leading educational institutions to maintain competitive advantage in a global landscape”.

Chiew observes that the University of Melbourne Student Precinct—designed by Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture, NMBW Architecture Studio, Breathe, Greenaway Architects, Architects EAT, Aspect Studios and Glas Urban —and the Clayton Transport Interchange—by Wardle and Aspect Studios— “exemplify a civic-minded approach to campus design.

These developments dissolve traditional boundaries between civic and campus environments, creating contemporary architectural responses that align with institutional aspirations while embedding and advancing local values of nurture, inclusion, and environmental stewardship into their designs”.

The student precinct in Parkville is a case in point and “encompasses a restored terrain developed through a multi-year co-design collaboration with First Nations stakeholders and architects to authentically reveal the site's rich geomorphology—the connecting element between four renovated schools and one new vertical school”, says Chiew.

Similar site-based considerations were the focus for Monash College, which occupies ten levels of a former office building in Melbourne’s Docklands. It offers secondary school graduates an alternative pathway to university, including foundation and diploma programs.

Chiew notes that the refurbishment by Lyons with NMBW Architecture Studio, Studiobird, Glas Urban and Gilby + Brewin is “designed around the concept of new terrains—both symbolic and spatial gestures that establish an inviting and identifiably Monash presence within the space, introducing elements of nature, nurture and discovery into environments typically characterised by blandness and disconnection from landscape”.

Often serving as satellite city campuses to larger suburban institutions, vertical schools are typically embedded in central business districts. This urban placement allows universities to integrate seamlessly into existing infrastructure—public transport, retail, food, accommodation—and creates reciprocal relationships with the surrounding community.

Above: The University of Melbourne Student Precinct by Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture, NMBW Architecture Studio, Breathe, Greenaway Architects, Architects EAT, Aspect Studios and Glas Urban. Photo by Peter Bennetts. Open shared access dissolves traditional boundaries between civic and campus environments.

At the University of Tasmania two projects in sensitive heritage contexts have been delivered by Wardle—River’s Edge and the Shed. Located within historic railway precincts, both are highly accessible and connected to civic and cultural networks and reflect the principles of the development as a shared precinct. Inside, the designs promote student collaboration and interaction.

Rooms organised around a central atrium act as the heart of the building, improving visibility and movement between floors. Interconnected staircases and open voids are crucial for activating the vertical campus and encouraging informal engagement. Enhanced solar orientation and thermal performance along with a careful selection of materials targets “embodied carbon reductions in structure, envelope, services, internal linings and furniture”, the studio notes.

“While the operation of the estate represents a significant cost, the estate is typically a very valuable asset. Many universities are looking at opportunities to leverage the value of the estate, and at the same time refashion it to support these new ways of working and learning”, partner at Wardle architects Meaghan Dwyer comments. “This extends to understanding the utilisation of their current estates and their future needs—tasks that are not to be underestimated—and developing robust business cases for expenditure. I don't think there is any doubt that the way forward is to develop the estate; however, the questions of why and how are particularly challenging, and subject to greater scrutiny.”

Over the last five years, changed patterns of working and learning, and limits to international student intake have impacted investment in the sector. While universities traditionally own and develop their campuses, architectural services are procured through competitive processes. “In our experience”, Dwyer says, and perhaps in alignment with the increased scrutiny of expenditure, “the competition is greater, and the contracts are tougher”.

In Australia’s rapidly densifying cities, vertical educational buildings have become emblematic of a larger shift in how space, learning, and civic life intersect. Far from being a passing trend or compromised substitute for traditional campuses, vertical schools represent a sustained, evolving investment in educational delivery within the fabric of urban and campus life.

Over the last decade, these typologies have grown from mainstream responses to demographic pressure, land scarcity, and shifting educational expectations. They reflect a broader ambition in campus design: to be civic, connected, and future-facing. Vertical schools have proven their value—not just in physical form, but in the way they bring learning closer to community life, integrate with infrastructure, and support innovation.

Despite economic pressures, investment in the estate remains a strategic asset for the delivery of educational services. Chiew notes that vertical schools “have paved the way for a critical mass of students on campus—either in learning and teaching spaces, or new residences—and the at-ground amenity of retail, open space, support and event areas to attract and sustain them”.

“There is also deep consideration of the need to refurbish existing building stock”, says Dwyer, which ties into industry-wide carbon reduction targets—of working within the spatial and built fabric of cities with the least environmental impact.

The move toward vertical urbanism reflects a significant shift in campus design that is ongoing, planned with broader efficiencies evident across the entire education sector.

Main image: River’s Edge by Wardle. Photos by Adam Gibson. The building expands from point through to panorama as it embraces views out to the North Esk. Interior atrium views provide additional natural light into study areas.

Emma Adams

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