Wilderness School Early Learning Centre

WILDERNESS SCHOOL EARLY LEARNING CENTRE

ADAPTIVE REUSE CREATES EXCEPTIONAL ELC STRUCTURED AROUND THE IDEA OF AN ITALIAN PIAZZA

In this development of an Early Learning Centre for Wilderness School, the new and the old are brought together to form a ‘piazza’: a place for coming together, a sense of belonging, and the fostering of community and shared values.

To the west of the piazza, a turn-of-the-century character residence is sensitively refurbished inside and out to provide learning spaces for six ‘Ateliers’ along with new compliant shared bathrooms and kitchen facilities. Rooms are expanded, external additions were removed and the building brought up to contemporary services and seismic standards.

Adjoining the original residence is the new Annex, a large, flexible space for group activities whose evocative roofline echoes the elevations of historic Italian piazzas such as Siena’s ‘Piazza del Campo’, complete with its light-well ‘campanile’ tower which serves as a visual landmark to invite entry into the new school gathering space.

Defining the piazza’s eastern edge is the ‘Loggia’, a covered outdoor learning space whose classical proportions respond to the verandah of the original residence. The former gardens of the house, both front and rear, are re-imagined as outdoor play and learning areas for the children, complete with outdoor rooms, kitchen garden and generous planting and tree canopy cover.