Design is ever-increasingly becoming an integral part of the construction sector. From the perspectives of value and risk, it makes fundamental sense to operate what is essentially a one-stop-shop of knowledge and experience, and deliver projects from inception to final completion with a continuum of brief development and understanding.

That’s one of the factors that drew me to my new role with BADGE earlier in the year. The other was the chance to continue contributing to a sector that I love for the difference it makes to our society: education.

I’m from a family of educators. My father was a teacher and most of my siblings followed in his footsteps. Growing up, my primary and secondary schooling was probably similar to yours and that of most people reading this blog: a standard teacher-directed rote learning experience. However, when I moved to university to study architecture and interior design, I discovered an educational culture built on enquiry-based learning in studio settings – where problem-solving was encouraged as a more tangible and applied process to learn from. This was a big shift and it took me by surprise.

15 years of architectural practice later, I re-entered the education world as a client-side project manager rather than a student. By now, the enquiry-based learning culture I had experienced years earlier myself was everywhere. My challenge was to make sure that the designers and builders engaged by my employer would create education facilities that enabled this learning culture to flourish and develop further. I did this for the next 12 years; overseeing the planning and development of schools with Catholic Education South Australia, and tertiary education facilities with the University of Adelaide. It was during this time I developed a strong passion for creating exceptional new learning environments – ones with the same ‘spark’ that I’d experienced as a uni student.

Now I’m excited about bringing my passion from the client side to the construction side with BADGE. This is a company with a proud background and decades of experience in the education sector, having built over 230 school projects worth more than $1 billion in the last 15 years. I’m thrilled about sharing and further developing my body of knowledge while working with a variety of clients for the good of their projects.

BADGE staff, Queensland Minister for Education Grace Grace and other project representatives wearing protective equipment as they turn the sod with shovels at Mount Ommaney Special School.

BADGE staff join Queensland Minister for Education Grace Grace and other project representatives for a sod-turning ceremony at the site of the new Mount Ommaney Special School in Brisbane, in June 2019.

The latest in learning design
With the dynamic challenges facing our society, environment and economy, the education sector is striving to produce competent learners and citizens of the future, who will have the skills to navigate that maze of challenges and find great opportunities. So BADGE knows that to produce exceptional educational environments and outcomes for learners, educators and the community, it’s not just about the building – it’s about understanding the drivers of the pedagogical change in new education design.

I attended the EduTECH conference in Sydney earlier this year, where education architect Prakash Nair highlighted four key shifts that are guiding the new school design model:

  • Teacher Delivery – from solo to collaborative
  • Pedagogy – from teacher-directed to student-directed
  • Curriculum – from segregated subjects to interdisciplinary courses
  • Community – from classrooms to networks, integration with the wider community, and global extension

All of these moves are driving change in the way our learning environments look and operate. To navigate new economic, environmental and social frontiers, today’s learners need to acquire, demonstrate and master real, practical and tangible skills. We as builders need to activate this in the facilities we design and construct.

Interdisciplinary learning is ever-present in today’s education facilities brief. This calls for us to develop highly-flexible environments that enable a combined practical approach to learning. For example, all in one connected space, a student might learn a language, pick fresh produce they’ve grown at the school (maybe based on the culture relevant to the foreign language they’re learning), create an exotic culinary masterpiece using the fundamentals of a chemistry-based lab experiment, and serve the meal to visiting local community guests using cutlery and crockery they have also made themselves using 3D modelling equipment!

We are also ready to work with educators looking to mesh science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects with arts-based curriculum features – a concept known as STEAM learning. Like interdisciplinary learning, STEAM learning requires a highly-collaborative and agile environment with strong indoor and outdoor connectivity, plus tailor-made IT and services infrastructure support.

Cube-shaped Smartblock unit on display, configured with chairs and a table for four people

Prefabricated ‘Smartblock’ workspace unit on display at EduTECH 2019

Looking ahead
As our Group Business Development Manager Colin Morgan suggested in his blog post earlier this year, it’s a prosperous time to be involved in the education sector.

National enrolments across public, Catholic and independent schools have grown from 3.5 million in 2009 to nearly 4 million in 2018. Commonwealth and State Governments have responded with a multitude of funding commitments, all aimed at delivering new and refurbished schools and improving national education and training outcomes at all ages. For example, the Queensland government recently committed $532m to its Building Future Schools Fund over seven years – bringing the total to $1.3bn. In my home state of South Australia, 97 metropolitan and regional schools will be upgraded over four years after an $800m Education Capital Works investment by the state government.

The South Australian Government is also preparing to establish two new super schools in Adelaide’s north (Angle Vale) and south (Aldinga). These schools will cater for learning from birth to Year 12 and they will be delivered under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement. BADGE has recently submitted a tender proposal for this project as a member of the EduSA consortium, after being shortlisted through an EOI phase. This follows our success as a PPP contractor in Western Australia, where (as part of the EduWest Joint Venture) we have delivered five schools in Perth for the state government with three more to come.

Meanwhile, we are currently in the thick of several education sector jobs around the country – including a $16m special school in Caboolture, a $14m School of Indigenous Studies building on a compact site at the University of Western Australia campus in Perth, and a new $6.2m multi-storey learning centre at Mt Ommaney Special School in Brisbane.

It’s certainly a boom time for education facilities, and at BADGE we’re ready to shape them into progressive learning environments that have a lifelong impact on modern students. I’m thrilled to be working with an organisation that is so well equipped for the challenge.

Featured image – Nazareth Catholic College Caritas Building

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