BOSTOCK HOUSE

BOSTOCK HOUSE ELC

Adventurous ideas

They might be our youngest learners, but our Bostock House ELC students are having significant input into the design development of our new Primary School at Corio. Guided by the team at Andrew Burns Architecture, MALA Studio Landscape Architecture and our expert Bostock House teachers, the students have been imagining fresh ideas for the project team to consider, with a particular focus on outdoor play areas and engaging with nature. Having collaborated with our Early Learning and Primary level teachers across multiple workshops and focus groups, Principal Architect, Andrew Burns, said it was essential “to also understand from the students what is important to them”. “There is often the kernel of a brilliant idea that if explored can become a driving concept behind the project,” Andrew said.

Director of Early Learning at Bostock House, Diana Hammond, said the students were eager to be involved and haven’t stopped talking about the project. “They were very proud to be considered the experts and they really owned that,” Diana said. “It was also a perfect link with the PYP (Primary Years Programme) Unit of Inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas and feelings. This was a wonderful provocation to explore feelings and identify emotions, and the way we communicate those ideas and feelings with others.” Initially, the ideas started small. “There was lots of blank space on the plans, so they really wanted to put things in, like toys and blocks. When we started to talk about how we could use the indoor and outdoor spaces, that’s when the ideas really started to flow. They were excited about what they could do and how they could create this amazing space with monkey bars, hammocks and big slides. Everything was big – a big campfire, a huge sandpit, a giant garden – everything was oversized.”

The project team has been both surprised and delighted by the student contributions. “Many of the students’ ideas are about being in the landscape, gathering outside, with spaces for making,” Andrew explained. “A theme that has recurred has been the idea of being elevated, to get to a higher vantage point where there is an outlook and a sense of adventure. We’ve interpreted this into the element of the ‘mountain’; an internal tiered landscape that contains booths for gathering and amphitheatre spaces, leading up to the library. Sometimes there is a process of translating an idea – for instance, Jack’s brilliant suggestion of creating ‘zones for displaying our

“I drew hammocks. I like swinging on them and I like sleeping on them. I drew a garden with pink flowers because that’s my favourite colour.” – Lucy

“I have drawn monkey bars because I thought that I would like that to play on. I would also like some trees you could climb on. And a kitchen too, so you could make chocolate chip cookies.” – Jack

feelings on the wall’ can be translated into a concept of arranging spaces according to emotion, which is a potentially transformative idea about learning spaces.”

As fun, creative and imaginative as the students’ ideas are, Andrew said the project team took consultation and collaboration “very seriously”. “It enables buildings to become layered, which means they can function in multiple ways and serve many people,” he explained. “The Primary School includes a central design collaboration between architecture and landscape architecture, which introduces a range of perspectives and will create something deeper than a solo design – it’s very much both/and thinking instead of either/or. In addition to this design collaboration, there is close collaboration with GGS teaching, executive, health and administrative staff, as well as students. All these voices have a key role to play in the project and design can optimise the outcome for all.”

“I drew a waterslide because I want one at the new school. I went down the waterslide at Adventure Park and I liked it.” – Hannah