Baldivis Secondary College

While a new school in a new sub-division, Baldivis Secondary College is located within an
established and historic community which has traditionally been focused on market
gardening and industry and has developed a strong focus on sustainability and community.

Planning was based on the establishment of the ‘learning warehouse’ as the core of the
school, a 120M long undercover warehouse roof constructed as a series of expressed truss
framed structural bays which form an east-west axis bookended by the Sports Hall to the
freeway and the Performing Arts building at the schools entry to the west. This warehouse
roof dissects the site and creates the central core around which the primary shared and
core functions of the school are located, including library, administration, general
learning and science communities and the cafe. The intent of this project was to create a
diversity of undercover space which is informed by the interrelationships between building
elements under the overarching ‘umbrella’ that is the warehouse roof. A materials
technology building is located to the north.

Industrial building elements form the aesthetics of the building composition. The colours
are chosen from the ‘safety’ palette and the long form of the cafe allows pedestrian
passage over its roof to connect the upper levels. This is a school which can be travelled
through, under, over and around and focuses on the dynamics of its students as the heart
of its activity.

The material palette is durable and reflects the industrial contextual setting. The
facades are a dynamic composition of off-white precast concrete, aluminium chequerplate
and coloured metaldeck sheeting articulated with expressed steelwork frames. The concrete
panels have been detailed with cast-in relief patterns to provide texture and shadowplay
across the facades whilst the colorbond sheeting and chequerplate shimmer and reflect
light and colour from all vantage points.