(Photography by Brett Boardman) Designed by Cox Richardson, the new Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney has been driven by the convergence of technology within the media industry.

"The new building has given the School the opportunity to restructure to align with, and acknowledge these technology-driven shifts," says Joe Agius, director Cox Richardson and lead architect on the AFTRS.

"The design creates a lively but coherent campus, one where all departments were actively engaged in the life of the school — and both students and academics were removed from the 'siloed' environments common to education buildings."

The school integrates teaching and administrative spaces coupled with technical teaching spaces, comprising film/television, radio and recording studios, theatres, post-production facilities and editing suites and a publicly accessible media resource centre, cinema and café on a 1,100 sqm footprint.

(Photography by Brett Boardman)

The design has engendered a significant cultural change in the operation of the School — both in the relationship between the academic staff, the interaction between departments, the engagement of the students in the social life of the School and the permeability and openness of the School in its engagement with the public domain.

This has been primarily addressed through a large naturally lit and ventilated active atrium space in which all main departments have a presence, and in which the public is encouraged to participate. All staff, from the head of the school down, are accommodated in an open plan environment on a singular floorplate. Student facilities are configured similarly.

Accommodation includes study work points for students and all requisite quiet spaces associated with open plan office environments.

The School comprises two three-storey wings arranged in an L-shape configuration. The academic accommodation and standard teaching components are located in an eastern wing, which has good solar orientation and vistas, while a western wing contains the major studio spaces.

Other technical areas are spread across both wings. The building uses a simple and robust palette of materials — deeply profiled metal panel, plywood, off-form concrete and glass. The library, atrium and 'hovering' roof plane are the central elements given formal articulation.

(Photography by Brett Boardman)

Architecture & Design Team

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