Three new public schools in NSW have been built using innovative modular construction methods as part of the NSW Government’s $6.7 billion investment into education.

The three schools, Denham Court Public School and Barramurra Public School in Sydney’s west, and Estella Public School in Wagga Wagga, were successfully delivered by Hanson Yuncken and Pedavoli Architects for Schools Infrastructure NSW’s major school building program to collectively provide state-of-the-art facilities for 2420 students.

Denham Court Public School

Denham Court Public School

With a focus on modern learning spaces that seek to promote a flexible learning environment, the new schools’ layouts support greater collaboration and enable teachers to provide a broad range of learning experiences that can suit individual needs and interests.

“The functional flexibility of the new school buildings was established early on as a fundamental design principle with end user experience at the core,” says Sam Rigoli, Pedavoli Architects partner.

While comprising a similar profile of building materials, Pedavoli sought to differentiate the look and feel of each school in relation to its environment. “The end user experience was key to the success of each project,” Rigoli continues. “While fundamentally this meant delivering a functional learning space for the students and teachers, creating a visually delightful and joyful environment was also paramount.”

Assisting in the successful delivery of the three individual and stimulating learning environments, CSR Cemintel’s Barestone prefinished panels were used in combination with its Surround range across each of the facades. Cemintel’s Barestone product offers a natural raw appearance, which blends seamlessly into any environment and can easily adapt to modern, contemporary design. For Estella Public School, the built form mimics a river bend that tracks the site’s contours, specifying Cemintel’s Barestone in three different shades of grey and in different panel sizes helped to inject a sense of movement and fluidity across the exterior of the school.

Barramurra Public School

Barramurra Public School

An expertly curated and innovative application of Cemintel’s sophisticated Surround colour range, for the facades of Barramurra and Denham Court Public Schools, helped to integrate the indoor and outdoor learning spaces, projecting the individuality and character of each school. “The CSR Cemintel Surround range helped us to achieve a playful aesthetic relative to the narrative of each school,” says Rigoli.

With a variety of learning environments to serve the needs of current and future pedagogies, including supported learning, each school features a library, hall, canteen, administration and staff facilities, as well as outdoor multipurpose learning areas. The architecturally and visually striking interiors have been designed with flexibility in mind and accommodate operable walls to allow the learning spaces to adapt to the appropriate pedagogy for each task. Taking into consideration the unique parameters of such modern educational buildings, the functionality and performance criteria that each building product had to meet were significant. Specifically engineered to meet the highest standards across a broad range of performance requirements, CSR Gyprock’s premium EC08 Complete was specified throughout. The multipurpose, premium plasterboard was able to meet the impact, noise and fire requirements of each school project.

“Gyprock EC08 is our go-to for buildings that have a variety of requirements,” says Rigoli. “Furthermore, the technical support provided by the team instilled us with the confidence to specify the CSR products.”

Selected to improve the internal acoustics, CSR Gyprock’s Rigitone Galaxy was used across various internal ceilings where the balance between functionality and design sought to be maintained. Rigitone Galaxy is manufactured by worldwide plasterboard specialist Saint-Gobain and is purpose-built to provide excellent acoustic control, while its seamless, intricate design pattern enables ultimate design freedom. The edge-to-edge product helped to maximise the acoustic absorption within the library spaces of Barramurra and Denham Court Schools.

Estella Public School

Estella Public School

Designed to support the massive residential growth in each area and to meet the increase in local enrolment demands, the schools were built using Volumetric Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA), also known as Modern Methods of Construction (MMoC) building techniques, which enabled rapid construction and meant they were delivered in extremely condensed timeframes. The portable permanent structures were built with longevity in mind, and the resulting schools provide high quality, modern and flexible learning facilities for students of the area, facilitating new ways of teaching and learning, and paving the way for the construction of future school buildings in NSW.

Estella Public School

Estella Public School

“The projects were the prototypes for the new high-quality classrooms package by SINSW; we were testing these construction techniques with a view to driving efficient construction methods while navigating the complexities of the current building landscape,” says Rigoli.

Photo credits:

Barramurra Public School - The Guthrie Project

Denham Court Public School - The Guthrie Project

Estella Public School – Photosource

Architecture & Design Team

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Gyprock

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