Author: ilese_admin

Darren McGregor is Regional Director (VIC/SA/WA) for Marist Schools Australia. As part of his 18 years as a senior school leader he was the Foundation Principal of Marist College Bendigo from 2014 until July 2022. Darren led all aspects of the development of this new learning community. Beginning in 2015 with one building, 200 Year 7 and 8 students and 22 staff, the College is now Foundation to Year 12 with an enrolment close to 1200 and 155 staff. The College is renowned for its modern approach to student centred learning. The architecture of the College has won numerous national and international awards. Throughout his tenure as Principal Darren was totally committed to the essential process of consultation that was required in the designing of each facility. He firmly believes in the importance of honest and trusting relationships between educators and architects.

Return to Talking Spaces 10

NOVUM is developing the LEASA (Learning Environment Analysis Survey App) tool as a response to the pressing needs of architects, educators and researchers. In order to assist design and use of these spaces, how can we measure their sometimes elusive qualities? LEASA is an online observational metric that maps the qualities of spaces, allows observers to gather empirical evidence on how they are used, and collates those observations into informative metrics for discussion and further practice development. An evolution of a tool initially developed by Dr Terry Byers and later by Vicky Leighton, LEASA owes its origins to quality research, but now has applicability to practitioners in design, education and academics.

Bio

Peter is the Managing Director of Novum with 35 years’ experience in architecture. He is a Registered Architect with the Architects Registration Board in the UK and is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.  He is passionate about community architecture and its ability to effect positive change.

He founded Novum at the beginning of 2017, with Joel Ridings, to provide innovative environments that support clients with a vision to improve people’s lives.  This has been refined and honed resulting in Novum becoming specialists in the nexus between pedagogy and learning spaces, creating designs that directly meet the needs of our school clients.

Return to Talking Spaces 10

The Stonefields School journey: A decade of vision to practice

Beginning a new school with a clearly articulated intention for learning and teaching is one thing; enacting it and improving it continuously over ten years is another. As we take stock, a decade from opening, a set of explicit principles become evident. Our place would not be what it currently is without a persistent emphasis on vision and pedagogical alignment, the development of enabling architecture, and impactful staff collaboration, each while maintaining the learner/whānau at the centre of decision-making. This presentation will explore aspects of this journey, discuss some challenges encountered on the way, and share some emerging questions now driving our learning.

Anita Unka
Anita Unka has been at Stonefields School in Auckland, New Zealand since 2014. As Junior Team Leader she leads ten teachers, focused on student achievement, wellbeing, and effective collaboration. Anita is also a school Lead for the Manaiakalani community of learning, a cluster of fourteen local schools, developing pedagogical practice to support equity outcomes. Her work inquires into student achievement challenges and how best to meet them. The pedagogical knowledge gained in Anita’s Masters of Education has informed her practice and enhanced her skills, particularly in the use of data to make informed teaching decisions. On her journey, she has developed high-leverage practices, exemplifying the school’s vision.

Chris Bradbeer
Chris Bradbeer is an Associate Principal at Stonefields School in Auckland, New Zealand, and a professional learning facilitator for the Stonefields Collaborative Trust. His work looks at developing connections between pedagogy and space, growing collaborative capacity and skills, and harnessing student voice to inform decision-making. His PhD research, completed in 2020 through the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, focuses on teacher collaboration in innovative learning environments. Chris is a part-time Research Fellow on the Innovative Learning Environments and Student Experience scoping study (ILESE). He is the immediate Past Chair of Learning Environments Australasia.

Return to Talking Spaces 10

Changing Places
Building cities, building schools

This presentation will consider cities as the setting for schools and communities. Our experience of navigating the complexities of the city environment shapes how we live – and drives the economic and social decisions that we make. City environments shape communities. City infrastructure is designed to enable communities to function and we should be able to question, review and evaluate performance – and determine what we should change.

Cities are complex organisms. We manage complexity by breaking things into discrete layers and we arrange governance to manage the resulting infrastructure. We invest massive sums in infrastructure, often understanding costs and responsibility – but having only a limited grasp of value.

Significant issues and risks demand that we now challenge and change our approach to delivering cities, schools and communities – to foster better outcomes and a different legacy.
Our approach to building cities reflects established mechanisms, standards and guidance we have put in place to plan and deliver cities. Planning has often been guided by a predict and provide approach to investment – looking backwards and projecting assumptions forwards. Delivery has used established paths to create cost-efficiency. Many of these paths are rigid and inflexible and removed from community.

This presentation will consider our approach to shaping cities and building communities and apply these lessons and observations to the design and delivery of schools. It will do this by reference to future challenges. It will examine where we are today and what we aspire to in the future. It will specifically consider the product, process and culture of our approaches and test these against emerging risks and future objectives. It will address ‘breaking’ as an element of what we are making. It will use examples to suggest opportunities to build value and deliver change.

Bio

As a Cities Director Alastair has an extensive role in the leadership and direction of multi-disciplinary projects. He has extensive international experience of project governance, advocacy, design and delivery. This includes a specific focus on integrated city-shaping – and leadership of the engagement activity and culture that underpins a robust process. As a designer at heart, he works across the core disciplines of master planning, urban design and landscape architecture. His experience ranges from thought leadership, visioning and concept stages through to design and delivery of complex urban schemes, social infrastructure, destinations and environments. He leads integrated design teams for significant landmark projects and has a project review, challenge and strategic advisory role across AECOM projects as part of the global practice network. He presents regularly to conference

Return to Talking Spaces 10

Design for purpose, design for place, design for country

Designing for education is a staggering responsibility. Learning environments shape lives. They determine students’ potential to thrive, to think, to excel, to work in diverse groups, and to love learning. School projects setting an example for communities that reflects the location’s identity on position within a community. A successful learning landscape will engages with the local context, providing social infrastructure to support the learners, learning and community.

ARM Architecture does not do tick box “stakeholder consultation”. We do co-creation and design for Country. ARM knows how to build trust through open and honest interactions, giving stakeholders the information they need to make informed decisions while simultaneously driving the design process forward.

We are committed to reconciliation and working collaboratively to design with country and community. Over many projects we have learnt to create safe spaces for discussion, the value of hearing and telling stories on country, and the importance of sharing our knowledge too. Projects like the Munarra Centre for Regional Excellence and Nga Kakano ā Rehia have taught us how active listening in the traditional communal narrative spaces of First Peoples can breathe life into buildings and their inhabitation. ARM understands the importance of building relationships locally. Our work is inextricably tied to Country and community. In order to fully understand and connect with the context of the project, we must rely on local insights.

Bio

Jesse provides design and project leadership for major health, educational, cultural, urban-design, recreational, public, and residential projects. He has practised for more than 20 years, playing major design and delivery roles on some of Australia’s most significant masterplanning and building projects. He works closely with clients, stakeholders and leads ARM’s design teams.

Return to Talking Spaces 10