Hester Hornbrook Academy’s City Campus, has transformed two levels of a vacant office building at 333 Exhibition Street into a learning environment catering to over 300 students and staff.
With Melbourne’s CBD office vacancy rate at a nation-high of 18 per cent, and traditional tenants consolidating or relocating, independent, not-for-profit organisations are stepping in to reimagine these buildings as essential community infrastructure.
The 2,100sqm adaptive reuse project has seen the transformation of the previous workspaces into classrooms, student support areas, and communal spaces tailored to the needs of its students, along with a dedicated staff workspace providing a central place for connection and collaboration.
During the design process, the upper level was reconfigured into distinct learning ‘neighbourhoods’, comprising three teaching classrooms. A central void was introduced to improve visibility and passive supervision between levels, while previously enclosed offices were adapted into classrooms, breakout zones, sensory rooms and hybrid learning spaces for students who require distance or hybrid learning.
The campus will focus on creating a nurturing environment for young people aged 15-25 who are, or are at risk of becoming, disengaged from school due to a range of barriers to education, including challenges in their family, community, school or personal circumstances. These include factors such as homelessness or disrupted education in the past.
A sense of safety, calm, and healing was considered within every aspect of the City campus. Colour plays a vital role, with a palette carefully selected to support student wellbeing. Soft muted tones reduce stress, blue and green create a calming and secure atmosphere, while warm pink tones aid emotional regulation. Following the delivery of previous Hester Hornbrook Academy campuses at Sunshine and Werribee, also designed by Gray Puksand, visual consistency was considered within the design of the city space to ensure a familiar environment for transferring students.
