Domremy's new Solais Sandpit Winner of Learning Environments Award


1st February 2019
Domremy College is pleased to announce that, together with Hayball Architecture, it was awarded Winner of the Renovation/Modernisation Category in the NSW Association for Learning Environments (Australasia) 2018 NSW Chapter Awards.

 

Domremy College is pleased to announce that, together with Hayball Architecture, it was awarded Winner of the Renovation/Modernisation Category in the NSW Association for Learning Environments (Australasia) 2018 NSW Chapter Awards for its Solais Sandpit.

On 6 December 2018, Domremy's Principal, Vivienne Awad, attended the NSW Association for Learning Environments NSW Chapter Awards evening with Hayball, the College's architects for the new Solais buildling development. 

The College and Hayball received the Winner Award for the Renovation/Modernisation Category for its Solais Sandpit - the space designed and transformed in 2018 as a prototype for the College's new development.

The Solais Sandpit is a modest 200m2 space that has successfully been transformed from traditional classrooms to a more dynamic range of educational settings including a tiered presentation space, boardroom, a tutorial room, and smaller ‘incubator’ spaces. Each of these areas work together to provide a comfortable environment where the students are encouraged to be more collaborative and are empowered to be more proactive and engaged with their learning. The inclusion of improved natural light, air and ventilation have been incorporated into the design to enhance the learning experience.

The Hayball team, in conjunction with Ben Cleveland, an Educational Specialist, successfully engaged with the wider school community to prepare the educational brief for this refurbishment, which is the first stage of a larger school masterplan. The Solais Sandpit has been used as a prototype to drive feedback and improvement in developing the finer details of the next phases of building works and as such is an educational project of its own.

With flexibility at the core of the brief and design, the new space consciously counters the traditional constraints that inhibit reconfigurable learning spaces and allows teachers to customise the space with minimal time and effort. The outcome has proactively tested new ways of teaching and learning, and facilitates student centred learning, which will have a large impact on the whole school community.

More on the Solais Sandpit and the Solais buidling project generally can be viewed on Hayball's website.

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