Iona Presentation College's creative hub

Iona Presentation College, Australia

Along with the school and our architectural partner, we helped to create a visionary masterplan for space design that reflects and supports the art of the possible for the next 20 years.

Challenges:

Iona Presentation College, a leading girls' school in Perth, embarked on a campus redevelopment project to enhance and accelerate their educational strategies.

This masterplan was aimed at fundamentally transforming the learning and teaching environment, aligning with the school's vision for future-ready education.

The school was already making gradual changes in its educational approach, but the campus masterplan presented an opportunity to significantly advance these initiatives.

Initial comprehensive observations across the campus highlighted the need to build upon the school’s strengths while transforming traditional learning environments that restricted innovative, project-based, and interdisciplinary learning.

Solutions Implemented:

We incorporated a focused design thinking program, led by NoTosh, to identify opportunities for developing the teaching and learning experiences to be embraced by Iona Presentation College. EIW Architects participated in developing and articulating a rigorous design brief that informed the learning environment concepts.

Prototyping new practices within existing classrooms identified significant limitations, leading to the development of new design principles focused on creating flexible and dynamic learning areas. These principles informed the architectural redesign.

A detailed technical project sheet is attached to our submission, showing more detail on water supply and harvesting, light and ventilation, flooring and furniture design.

Outcomes:

The four-storey Albeus Fahey Building is a centrepiece of the Mosman Park Senior Campus following demolition of the Boarding House and Library.

The building provides contemporary learning environments to cater for the existing student population with a core focus on arts, design, and innovation. It also encompasses the 100-year-old Presentation Sisters heritage by responding to the historical links with the isle of Iona—between the ocean and the river—and the story of the founder, Nano Nagle. The themes of the Agora, the Crossing, and the Lantern have informed the context for which the Learning Centre contributes to the cultural continuum of the place.

The design addresses the terrain fall across the site with the splitting of levels and connecting into various existing surrounding building levels. Careful consideration was given to the scale and bulk of the design, to ensure a sympathetic and complementary premier building for the College.

“NoTosh’s process gave us the confidence to try new things and push the boundaries.”
Philip Idle, EIW Architects