MELBOURNE
GRAMMAR SCHOOL CENTRE FOR LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP
This proposal was prepared in
response to an invited competition for a new signature building for
Melbourne Grammar School. The facility was to incorporate a
new library/resource centre, technology centre, lecture theatre,
and adminstrative facilities including new headmaster's and
bursar's offices.
The importance of the project led
Demaine Partnership to seek world best practice in the design of
library facilities, and we approached Bolles Wilson of Munster,
Germany, to prepare a joint submission for the competition.
Bolles Wilson's experience in designing the seminal Munster
Municipal Library had led to a range of important library
commissions, including the European Centre for Culture in Milan and
the National Library of Luxembourg.
The design reflects an innovative
approach by producing a structure that is vertically organized
around a series of interlinking voids. The building has
embedded within its form a multi storey truss that enables the
building to bridge across an entry plaza, creating a bold new entry
point on Domain Road in South Yarra. This entry frames vistas
to the nineteenth century bluestone heart of the school campus, and
gives the school a strong new public address.
From within the site, a link to
the original nineteenth century quadrangle was proposed. This
created an east/west axes, with a large ceremonial stair acting as
an anchor at the western end of this axis, a counterpoint to the
existing chapel on the other end of the quad to the east. The
stair was intended to create an informal gathering point and
topographic marker within the school, as well as an impressive
point of entry to both the library and the headmasters
suite.
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