Penleigh and Essendon Grammar (PEGS) – Junior Boys

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar (PEGS) – Junior Boys

Concept

Penleigh and Essendon Junior Boys School began in an Italianate mansion on a windy hill, opposite the Essendon Footy Club. This building is exceptional in a residential area where Federation housing dominates. Slowly the school has accumulated much of the property in the block bounded by Nicholson, Raleigh, Napier & Fletcher Streets. Many of the ‘houses’ are now occupied by the school. This new project, a two storey year 5 & 6 block with 3 classrooms above and below, is an important addition to the school and public interface to Nicholson Street.

We wanted this building to acknowledge and exploit its unusual urban condition. All wanted this building to be a unique acknowledgment of an important threshold stage in the boy’s school life. All wanted more than just good accommodation, and we wanted a building of the imagination.

This proposal takes just the silhouette of a Federation Home, it is up-scaled, extruded and sliced. The front of the building might be described perhaps as a haunted house, the centre (the extrusion) is vaguely a Shinto Shrine, the rear (which interfaces with the schools’ ovals), if you squint – The Big Top.

The planning is arranged so as to provide northern courtyards to the ground floor classrooms, upstairs the corridor is switched to reduce overlooking to the adjacent neighbour. The ground floor Grade 5 classrooms have rich deep colours and an earthy ambiance. The first floor is ethereal. With more than a nod to Utzons Bagsvaerd Church, the complex silhouette is smoothed of a cloudlike shape. The extruded chimney a source of light and a means of naturally ventilating the classroom space.

Completed
2011
Location
Essendon, Australia
Awards

Australian Institute of Architects 2012
Victorian Chapter Annual Awards Public Architecture High Commendation

Australian Interior Design Awards 2012
Public Design High Commendation 

Think Brick Awards 2011
Horbury Hunt Award 

Melbourne Design Awards 2011
Commercial Architecture 

Publications

DesignBoom, 15 April 2011
Architizer, 6 November 2014
World Architecture News, 20 January 2012
ArchDaily, 22/01/2011
Dezeen, 26 August 2011
Steel.com.au, 5 August 2013
Architecture & Design, 19 December 2012
Australian Design Review, 28/09/2011

Sustainability

Pegs Junior Boys School achieves environmental sustainability through simple good design principles.  The federation silhouette not only stands as a symbol to the street, but each element of the shape performs a job.  The overhanging eaves protect the large glazed portions of the ground floor facade, blocking the harsh summer sun from the north while allowing the lower winter sun to flood the classrooms. Meanwhile, the large bank of windows to the south open up to breezes, cross-ventilating the upstairs classrooms. The building continues to defy first expectations as the extruded chimney, usually a source of pollution, opens up via a louvered system to expel hot air, assisting the building’s passive cooling.