Gray Puksand has been appointed by the Victorian State Government to design two Melbourne schools in Prahran and South Melbourne to cater to the city’s growing urban population.
The new Prahran High School will be located on the former Swinburne Prahran campus site, adjoining the National Institute of Circus Arts and Melbourne Polytechnic, with the project scope to include the refurbishment and development of an existing six-storey building and a large car parking area.
The South Melbourne Park Primary School site on Albert Drive Road was previously occupied by Parks Victoria and has a number of potentially historically significant buildings that may be repurposed in the development of the multi-level education facility.
Gray Puksand Partner Stephen Turner views the constrained nature of these urban sites as a unique opportunity to design agile learning environments within existing vertical buildings with countless options for contemporary teaching and learning, as well as outdoor activities.
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A strong advocate of integrating modern education philosophies into the design of school facilities, Turner has been a significant contributor to the evolution of pedagogy driven design over the past decade.
Turner recently represented Australia at an International OECD meeting of 14 countries in Paris, France to help establish an instrument to measure education facilities that will assist school leaders, researchers, policy makers and designers on how to best invest in learning environments.
Gray Puksand’s portfolio of education projects includes Somerville Secondary College's Technical Education Centre, Deakin University's Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET), and Chisholm Institute’s START Trade Training Centre.
