Corinda State High School is locate in Brisbane, Queensland and is one the leading co-education public schools in the area. As part of 2019 Renewing our Schools Program Gray Puksand was engaged to complete the new Research & Innovation Centre creating a new central heart of Corinda State High School campus that includes contemporary statement spaces that identify the school as a modern education environment.
The brief and vision were to create a central hub that was future-focused to prepare students as agents of their own education. The Research and Innovation Centre design ensured that from the outset, spaces allowed for a range of learning opportunities and pedagogies acting as a “living room that extends to an alfresco” for the school.
The centre consolidates existing underutilised assets to create a flexible, adaptable hub that responds to and fosters contemporary learning outcomes. An environment that enables teachers and students to explore and collaborate, while enabling inquiry through problem-based learning and creativity.
Student agency was at the heart of the school’s vision for this facility which informed a design that allows students to not only use the facility but also take part in how it is operated. Through spatial connectivity the design provides self-serve help desks, meeting rooms and storage areas that can be manned by students with continuous passive supervision by staff. Students have access to green screen room and recording studios to develop their own media, artificial intelligence programs, virtual reality, as well as independent study, social and library spaces.
The overall scheme is deliberately open plan, with spaces that need to be enclosed strategically place to create physical separations. The vertical connections, though the bleachers or the stairs, creates the opportunity for the building to be used in different ways, depending on how much or how little permeability is desired for different activities or events.
