Resource Centre

The Resource + Technology Centre at Wondai State School is a modest, robust building located in a rural setting. Internally, a series of interconnected, multipurpose spaces are enlivened by visual interest in the ceilings and floors. The building provides a variety of spaces for teaching and learning, including flexible seminar spaces, a tiered reading nook and an outdoor amphitheatre. A raised central skylight exposing the timber frame roof trusses provides a source of natural lit and ventilation.

Externally, simple materials (corrugated metal cladding, face brickwork, fibre-cement and aluminium battens) are combined into a façade that is both austere and playful. Dominating the façade is an abstracted ‘rainbow serpent’. Glazed red brick and cut brick ‘scales’ become a multi-coloured undulating screen that wraps around the elevations and into the entry, where the same colours become fragmented into the flooring.

The passive thermal performance of the building has been maximised through its orientation, the provision of extensive external sun control and louvre windows throughout. High level motorised louvres serve as a chimney to vent hot air. Deep veranda spaces are provided to the north and east. Materials and fittings (including thermal insulation, low energy lighting and water saving taps and outlets) were also chosen to reduce the impact of the building. The selection of robust, low-maintenance materials and finishes also serves to increase the lifecycle of the building (and offset the embodied energy of the materials).