Ascham School
learning°
Ascham School Science and Duntrim Boarding Centre is located in Edgecliff, Sydney. The project was commissioned by the school, with architecture by BVN.
The Science and Boarding Centre opened in 2016.
Size: 5,800m2
Budget: $20,000,000
Scope: Masterplan, Concept Design, Detail Documentation, Construction
1. Entry Plaza (above left)
2. Integrated steps and terrace seating (below left)
3. Formal and informal seating (right)
Landscape Masterplan
Heritage Duntrim Boarding Centre
Science Faculty Forecourt
Social seating
‘This development will be the key that unlocks the school’s future.’
- Andrew Powell, Principal Ascham School
Concept renders
Design Statement
Founded in 1886, Ascham School is a prestigious girls school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, renowned for its unique Dalton Plan system of learning. This project includes a new Science Centre and Boarding House for Ascham Secondary School.
The new science centre has a 130 seat tiered lecture theatre and nine laboratories that are centred around an informal learning area over 2 levels and connect to a garden that is incorporated in the learning process.
The multi-faceted, flexible and interactive nature of the design is tailored to suit the Dalton Plan – an approach to learning which involves a combination of lessons and studies where each student makes active decisions about how she works and learns.
The Boarding House provides 68 beds, with tutor accommodation, in a series of new and existing buildings including Duntrim House, a large heritage-listed structure. The buildings and their gardens have been designed to create a nurturing and supportive environment, enabling the young girls to dwell, study, socialise and retreat in a variety of spaces from communal to private, active to passive and energising to calm.
The landscape design references the character of the wider campus, unifying the new contemporary building with the adjacent heritage-listed buildings by employing principles, forms and materials that demonstrate a progressive school in celebration of its traditions.
A diversity of activated landscape spaces are provided to promote the schools’ curriculum, and inclusive peer to peer interaction for girls of different ages and personalities.
- BVN and 360
