Image: Woods Bagot
The Meadowbank Education Precinct includes two schools – a primary school and secondary school – located to the north of the technology focused TAFE NSW Northern Sydney Institute Meadowbank Campus. The schools have been developed to align with the Education SEPP Design Quality Principles and has undergone community engagement and user group sessions to deliver a building that exceeds minimum industry standards for universal design.
Meadowbank Public School increased capacity to 1,000 students, and Marsden High School welcomed up to 1,500 secondary school students and a 120 place Intensive English Centre upon their relocation to the 3.3ha precinct.
The 8-storey integrated multipurpose school includes collaborative general and specialist learning hubs with both enclosed and open spaces, classroom home bases, library, laboratories and workshops, recreation and performance spaces, a multipurpose community hall, outdoor learning, play and recreational areas, indoor gymnasiums, student canteens, staff workplaces, basement parking, site landscaping and public domain improvements, and construction of ancillary infrastructure and utilities.
Research has demonstrated clear connections between the quality and sustainability of a school with the health, wellbeing and performance of students and staff which was a focus of the design of the Meadowbank Schools. Growing children breathe more air relative to their body size than adults, and as a result, they can sustain greater health problems and risks than adults from toxics and pollutants commonly found in schools.
Through passive design we were able to promote a high level of indoor air quality, thermal and visual comfort. Thermal modelling demonstrates that the learning spaces and libraries can achieve a predicted mean vote (PMV) of +/- 0.5 for 95% of occupied hours. The ventilation systems are designed to maintain an average daily CO2 850ppm, and so that the maximum concentration does not exceed 1,500ppm for than 20 consecutive minutes in each day.
Achieving optimal acoustic conditions is of high importance in schools especially as the site is bordered by Sydney Trains’ T9 Northern Line and busy Rhodes Street. The site exposure to passenger and freight train noise posed a challenge to the natural and mixed mode design. To ensure the internal noise levels did not require a teacher to raise their voice the façades incorporate an acoustically treated passive ventilation system.
The Meadowbank development also looks to the future and beyond education by encompassing an employment precinct which whilst having education at its heart it will be instrumental in connecting students to training and employment opportunities with local industry and the surrounding community.