Located in one of Victoria’s most historic regional cities, Ballarat Grammar was founded in 1911. Its rich history dates back to 1877, when the original school on the existing site, Queens College, was established. This prestigious, coeducational school has a well-earned reputation as one of Australia’s leading regional educational facilities, boasting many firsts.
Winning the BEN Environment award in 2002 when the Sustainable Building Expo was hosted on campus as part of World Environment Week was one of their proudest moments. This passion and commitment for the built environment have continued with the recent completion of the new Ballarat Grammar 5/6 Centre.
A sensational new environment for later primary-year students, the Centre facilitates genuinely collaborative learning experiences during these vital years. The new building offers an inspiring space for continuous exploration and learning while achieving significant levels of energy efficiency.
Morton Dunn Architects shared their thoughts on this project’s unique design features, particularly its inventive utilisation of Capral Aluminium architectural and building solutions, delivering superior performance, intuitive design, and stunning aesthetics.
The building utilises the impressive capacities of Capral’s Futureline 419TB framing system, accommodating high-performance double-glazed units while retaining the crisp, clean profiles typically associated with commercial glazing systems.
Cutting-edge thermal break technologies, including single bar multi-hollow and double bar polyamide strips, incorporated into the Futureline 419TB framing system, deliver excellent levels of thermal insulation.
According to Morton Dunn Architects, the Futureline’s superb capacities come into their own in the building’s east-facing façade. “Using the Futureline system has enabled us to incorporate several automated high-level windows. This improves cross-ventilation, optimising health and wellbeing for occupants.”
The building’s unique aesthetics are intrinsic to its success as a place of education. “With the extensively glazed east-facing façade, which partly wraps around the northern side, we created a strong sense of connection between inside and outside, which enables a greater sense of inclusivity through reinforcing the building’s connection with the school, as well as enhancing visibility to the surrounding school site.”
Ballarat’s extreme seasonal temperatures were critical to specifying the glazing, window, and door systems. “Superior levels of thermal performance were necessary,” Morton Dunn Architects note. With temperatures in Ballarat reaching as low as minus 2°C in winter and above 44°C in summer, we needed to minimise heat loss and heat gain.”
“When we were designing the building, we were mindful of the importance for the building to ‘speak’ to the context of the surrounding school site and maximise indoor-outdoor visual connections. The floor-to-ceiling Capral system greatly contributes to the visual appeal and openness that the building provides.”
“The Futureline curtain wall system incorporates openable windows on both levels, providing flexibility by giving those inside the building greater control over its function. The first floor’s balustrade-height windows slide sideways to create a similar effect to being on a balcony – further enhancing the indoor and outdoor connection.”
“Largely due to the slimness of the Futureline framing elements, people on the street and the oval can see through to the building’s airy interior, with scenes of students going about their day making the building more visually dynamic.” The building incorporates an expansive eight-panel bifold door that opens the ground floor right up to the adjacent oval and surrounding school.
The building’s floorplan reinforces the overarching theme of connectedness. “We created a large central gathering stair, enabling the whole of Years 5 and 6 to meet together; at other times, students can be easily split into group rooms with large acoustic sliders.”
The Capral Artisan Architectural 900 Series sliding door system adds significantly to the building’s functionality. Designed for flexibility and performance, the Artisan Architectural 900 Series sliding doors can be fitted with single- or double-glazed units and are compatible with the full range of Capral framing systems.
The Artisan Architectural 900 Series’ ease of use, durability, and versatility are ideal for school settings. “The Capral 900 high-performance sliding door system provides excellent acoustic separation between learning spaces, which has been an extremely successful element of the learning environments, whilst enabling great visibility between learning spaces to help build connections within learning communities.”
The Capral window suites incorporate several novel architectural shading strategies. “Some of the windows were designed with recesses while others feature projections, splayed edges, and recesses to provide extensive visual variation and functional flexibility. These modified window shapes serve as many individual learning spaces, including window seats and nooks for the children to perch and look out.”
The interior demonstrates the building’s forward-thinking nature. “The brief specified the inclusion of flexible and adaptable spaces, enabling classes to work in small or large groups while accommodating a range of different learning styles. The layout reflects the shift towards student-centred practice, with tiered seating and furniture in a range of geometric shapes.”
Capral achieved the building’s superior thermal performance and low energy consumption by installing quality insulation, performance glazing, and Capral’s innovative window and door systems. “These combined initiatives have brought us close to achieving a net-zero energy building. The energy monitoring system reports on consumption, as well as displaying how much energy is being supplied by the rooftop solar panels.”
The Year 5/6 centre has received impressive reviews. “Since opening in March 2022, the building has generated extensive interest from staff and visitors. We’ve received many positive comments on the building’s energy performance, acoustic performance, and striking presentation – and best of all, the children really love its sense of fun and whimsy.”
Ballarat Grammar’s 5/6 Centre beautifully displays Capral’s impressive capacities within a future-focused educational setting.
Project details
Project: Ballarat Grammar 5/6 Centre
Project Credits:
Architect: Morton Dunn Architects
Builder: H Troon
Fabricator: H Troon
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- Futureline 419TB; Thermally Broken, Aluminium Framing System
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