St Mary’s School by Rebel Base Collective
As an addition to St Mary’s School campus in Waverley, Rebel Base Collective has reimagined the future of education, from concrete to curriculum. Their approach to this responsibility was to deviate from traditional forms and formats of schools to expand into a new way of creating educational spaces. Interpreting different architectural languages and striving for sustainable education, their extension on the campus is nothing short of a holistic marvel of design for the future of academic institutions.
A sight of design styles
Located between the senior and junior schools, the Pitt Block formed part of St Mary’s campus — a collage of different local architectural styles that were fashionable over the last century. This space — handed to Rebel Base with the brief of being reinvented — is surrounded by mid-century, neo-classical, and Art Deco styles. On top of that, the campus reveals designs reminiscent of Edwardian and Victorian styles of the 1900s. The existing Pitt Block was of a 1980s-styled addition that attempted to combine the mid-centuryesque styles of the Junior School Science Block and the scale of the admin block into a more cost-effective and robust building. But it was time for that to change.
Between two buildings
The team’s idea behind the overall design was to use the lines of the paths which travelled between the Junior School and Senior School to their advantage, merging the axis of each school to create a permeable building. The building is to be used as a tool for growing and learning, with service elements designed to expose how they work so that the pupils can learn peripherally from their surroundings. Each space is designed for children to meander through, sit on, climb on, and engage with as a place for learning, gathering, or solitude. Each classroom opens to the outside in different ways to give teachers different options for engaging with their classes, making the building a giant treehouse of sorts. With open views into and around the trees, Rebel Base paid special attention to working around the trees and tectonics to create a building that was moulded to its environment.
Sustainable realisation
To create a nexus and entry point to the school, the Pitt Block had to be demolished. (Since the building had been named in commemoration of a past headmistress, to maintain this gesture, an inspired artwork by Hannelie Coetzee was commissioned — a mural of a dodo, after Dorothea Pitt’s nickname for herself.) An intersection was made to split the building into four parts, creating intimate in-between spaces for breakaways from classes and for students to inhabit during breaks and after school. A sustainable approach was essential, so Rebel Base turned the building into a tool for sustainable education. Self-shaded façades are oriented to trap heat in the winter and be shaded and cool in the summer. The rainwater, instead of being stored in tanks, fills a naturally planted wetland that both treats the water and forms the main indigenous garden in the internal courtyard.
There were several challenges that arose during the course of the project. Changes were made as a cost engineering exercise early on where the green roof on the main hall was flipped around. The team spent a lot of time adapting their detailing as the project progressed, which is a common case in projects and is always crucial. Another example is their having to build on a working site, which is never easy. But the contractors were incredibly respectful of this and the project ran relatively smoothly, considering being so centrally located on the property. The complexity of the curves and the tapered cantilevering slabs also created the need for a significant amount of re-detailing shutter layouts and adjusting time and costs.
A palette of integrity
To produce a structure that proves robust and honest, the team remained true to their choice of beautifully crafted raw materials. The building is made predominantly of concrete, brick, and steel. Large insulated cavities in the walls enhance thermal performance. The choice of materials was used to blend into the school with the red face brick, echoing the existing campus. The large concrete overhangs soften the scale of the building and black steel balustrades and columns give depth and life to the swooping edges of the walkways and ramps.
Copper pipes from the plumbing are exposed in some areas, making a conventional choice of material more unique. Material palettes blend the shapes, and the curves of the building differ from the traditional architecture of the school with accentuated scallops of face brick which trap heat in winter and are self-shading in summer. To connect the steel columns to the concrete soffits, steel hats have been used which also act as rainwater down pipes. Finally, the trees around the building contribute to the feeling of the spaces, and a wetland garden in the centre creates evaporative cooling through the courtyard, allowing the south-westerly breeze to brush over the water.
A highlight of the project for Rebel Base Collective was their above-and-beyond experience with the client. Generous in their approach, they offered the architectural team the space to deal with challenges and support throughout. By trusting the team, both the architects and contractors, the project was handled with minimal intervention and sufficient opportunity to perfect each aspect of the process — a rare and appreciated contribution that encouraged the undoubted success of St Mary’s.
In their extension of this visionary campus, Rebel Base Collective has crafted a building that is a fresh take on what educational environments can be. By incorporating history, culture, and sustainability, the project strengthens the school space and those who inhabit it.
Photography by Dave Southwood & Rebel Base Collective
This article is an extract from our June Issue. Read the full issue here.
