Brisbane Grammar School sets High Standard for STEAM Learning Centres

The new Brisbane Grammar School (BGS) STEAM Precinct, designed by WilsonArchitects, sets a benchmark for STEAM teaching and learning buildings.

It is sited on the western edge of the campus and spans over 16,000m², featuring four storeys all designed to accommodate interdisciplinary learning.

At the heart of the design is a central atrium, a large ‘incubator’ space which houses a series of suspended circular group learning pods. Each pod signifies a different discipline, and their transparent casing ensures students and teachers are highly visible - inviting interconnected learning.

WilsonArchitects Director Hamilton Wilson says the learning pods also have another advantage: “The inclusion of this circular motif became a symbol around a collective learning community, promoting conditions around curious enquiry.”

BGS Director of STEAM Education Tanya Neilsen adds, “The design of the building has been created to provoke trans-disciplinary learning - the intersection of science, design, art and mathematics. It’s also highly transparent, so there’s a real visibility of learning that happens in the building.”

Prioritising Flexibility
Hamilton and his team worked closely with BGS teachers, students, parents, and the wider community, to develop a flexible precinct design where classrooms, studio spaces, advanced co-laboratories and collaborative areas can be adapted to different teaching styles and learning activities.

Interiors facilitate both theory and practical-based activities and the floorplan also allows for classrooms to be reconfigured to accommodate small and large groups of students. An Art Gallery within the STEAM precinct leverages the school’s already significant art collection to so the students can make new connections and inspire cross-disciplinary conversations.

Bringing to Life Contemporary Learning Frameworks
The connection between the teacher-led environments (classrooms) and the student-directed spaces was another important component of the design. WilsonArchitects successfully delivered on both counts - providing ample spaces for teachers whilst also giving spatial agency to their students.

“The interior really is a theatre of demonstrable learning,” says Hamilton.

BGS Headmaster Anthony Micallef describes the new STEAM Precinct says, “This contemporary facility has enabled staff to better deliver curriculum and has provided students with a conducive environment for learning and our community with a place to connect and celebrate.”

Multi Award-winning Design
The design of the BGS STEAM Precinct has won WilsonArchitects a slew of architecture awards. Most recently, the practice received an international architecture award from Architecture MasterPrize, in the category of educational buildings. The practice also won the highest honour for education architecture at this year’s Queensland Institute of Architects Awards, the awards jury described the design as a “compelling example of a modern teaching and learning environment.

“Taking a holistic approach to the multidisciplinary learning requirements, the architects’ skill has generated evocative, adaptable, acoustically mastered, sunlight-filled, and dynamic learning spaces.”