Monash Special Development School Learning Centre
A purpose-built learning centre for Monash Special Development School, delivering three buildings' worth of genuine care within the budget for one.
Cotter Reid delivered a new Resource Intensive Learning Centre for Monash Special Development School, fusing the scope and budget of two separate projects into one purpose-built building. Careful budget management stretched the project further still, effectively delivering three learning centres for the price of one.
Client
Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) - Monash Special Development School
Location
Wheelers Hill, VIC
Year
2023
Services
Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Design
A School Turning Students Away
Monash Special Development School, a centre of excellence for high needs students, was turning away applications purely due to a lack of capacity. The school needed a new learning centre with food technology, a simulation centre, IT and media rooms, a library and a dedicated Junior School to replace its former relocatable compound.
Comfort Without Overwhelm
A neighbouring aged care facility overlooked the site, requiring genuine visual protection for students, while intense drop-off and pickup traffic needed careful management. The final design delivered spaces with great acoustic performance, well crafted interior design balancing visual stimuli with hypersensitivity and spatial volumes that allow large gatherings without an overwhelming feeling.
Learning From a New Cohort
Being our first special development school project, we approached it with open ears and a genuine willingness to learn, anchoring the design in leading research and specialist advice, and visiting other special development schools alongside the school itself to understand what mattered most for this cohort.
Promised Two, Delivered Three
We have managed to deliver the project within budget, with an expanded scope with durable, low-maintenance materials and layered security keeping the building safe and easy to run. Having promised two buildings, we ultimately delivered three.