Aquinas College Early Years Learning Centre
Parry & Rosenthal Architects
58 Mount Henry Road Salter Point, Western Australia 6152 Australia
Robert Frith, Acorn Photo
The introduction of a new Early Years Learning Centre in a well-established School in Western Australia. The new facility is an extension of the existing Junior School precinct and provides a friendly, enclosed & safe transitional learning environment for young children entering school.
This project involves the design of a new Early Years Learning Centre which has enabled Aquinas College to add Kindergarten, Pre-primary and Years 1 to 3 to the Year 4 to 12 programs already provided and which will allow the smooth, careful transition of young children into school. The new buildings are located to the north of the existing junior school buildings on a former treeless bitumen hardstand area which allowed all of the existing mature trees to the west of the site to be retained and used as a natural play area for the new centre.
The accommodation has been broken down into a village of smaller single storey, accessible buildings that act as a barrier in protecting the children from the surrounding vehicular & pedestrian traffic and provide a safe, shaded courtyard and nature play area in the heart of the cluster that can be easily supervised. Verandas link the buildings and further help scale the building down to the play areas.
Being at the entry to the campus, colours and materials have been selected for their quality & timelessness to reflect the Colleges ethos, complement the existing buildings and to tie in with its school colours.