MADA
  • REACHING NEW LEARNERS: Sunbury TAFE
  • REACHING NEW LEARNERS: Sunbury TAFE
  • REACHING NEW LEARNERS: Sunbury TAFE
Michelle Phillips
Master of Architecture
michelleannephillips@gmail.com

Living/Education is a network of program aimed at supporting Hard to Reach Learners return to the education system. Site selection for the project was critical. Sunbury, as a previously regional town, is affordable, has an established community and a good concentration of services and public transport.

The program includes: a TAFE; library; auditorium; retail space; childcare and student housing. Learning is integrated into the way students live with classrooms running in parallel with outdoor and indoor recreation and relaxation areas.

To give the structure a more intimate and less institutional sensibility, the slope of the site is used to disguise its bulk. Connections between the housing and TAFE are drawn through the scale of learning spaces and the use of a similar material palette and architectural language.

A number of options of student housing types are provided to reflect the diversity of people’s family and living arrangements.