by Hayball Senior Associate Laura Ulph, with additional comments from Senior Associate Kerlina Bahari and Principal Harry Nicholas
Increasingly, research is showing that traditional school environments are not meeting the needs of every student. Whether neuro or gender-diverse, differently abled, from different cultural identities or family backgrounds, or healing from past trauma, many students are struggling with mainstream schooling. Despite students being willing and capable learners, and under the guidance of highly competent teachers, it’s clear that many of our physical school environments need to be adapted to better meet student needs.
Hayball is a national architectural practice with studios in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and the ACT, designing new environments for schools to meet evolving demands. As architects, we have a responsibility to integrate the unique needs of each school by developing a collaborative partnership, with deep listening as a core foundation. Our decisions as designers will have a lasting impact on the education and lives of our young people. Therefore, it is fundamental that these decisions are based on real human values, open-mindedness, and wellness, and that they are both compassionate and future-focused.
Inclusivity is a broad term and may be subject to differences in definition or interpretation at each school. By listening deeply to the voices of students, staff, and those supporting their quest to learn, we can strive to genuinely understand what inclusivity means to them and provide a meaningful and responsive built learning environment.
Through our work, partnerships, and industry seminars like Learning Environments Australasia’s recent Amplify conference, we can develop design thinking that supports the realization of learning environments that provide students with meaningful choices to support their needs. Depending on the student, a lack of control—however minor in nature—can be a trigger. Providing a space that gives them some sense of control over their own learning, and designing physical surroundings that foster a sense of belonging and comfort, can improve engagement. Allowing students choices regarding furniture, setting, noise, position within a larger space, light, or temperature can provide the ownership required to enable them to feel comfortable.
Through our projects, we are looking at what barriers can be removed to provide supportive and engaging physical environments that complement the school’s pedagogy.
One example is a research project we are currently working on in collaboration with The University of Melbourne and Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS). Using Holy Cross Primary School, Mickleham as a pilot, we are exploring what inclusivity means to schools and unpacking how this can be translated into a physical environment. The pilot commenced with a series of workshops and consultation sessions with key stakeholders, including the school’s leadership team, staff, students, their parents, and MACS occupational therapists, to better understand both the school’s needs and opportunities.
In our design process, we incorporated the outcomes of these consultation sessions into the creation of new learning environments. One key design decision was the exploration of options for students to seek different types of settings for retreat within the Learning Building, whether within, adjacent to, or separate from the general learning area. The aim is to provide agency for students to seek an appropriate space based on their changing behaviour, emotions, and need to regulate or reduce stimulation.
Outcomes also showed that a diversity of external settings is just as important as the internal ones, giving students the opportunity to connect with peers in an active play-based setting (adventure play, large sandpits, and team sports, for example), group gatherings within a story circle, or individual reflection in the discrete garden affectionately named the ‘Zen garden.’ The result is a learning environment that welcomes all students, making them feel safe and providing them with agency over their own needs while celebrating their diversity.
The next step is an in-depth post-occupancy evaluation to better understand what’s working, where there’s room for improvement, and, most importantly, how the learnings from the overall process can be applied to future MACS schools.
We are already applying some of these learnings to our work with Aitken College’s Cumberland Junior School. Here, the team set out to create physical spaces that actively respond to the diverse individual learner’s interests and needs. We have created a range of settings—active and passive zones of differing scales—enabling students, under their teacher’s guidance, to choose a space that best supports their learning activity and needs at any given time. Welcoming and playful, the building’s design breaks stigmas associated with separate spaces, in turn fostering a sense of ownership among the students. Initial feedback from Aitken College indicates their students are responding positively to the new building.
With rising construction costs, designing new spaces and incorporating new thinking like this can often feel unattainable for schools and educators. While teachers and principals want the best for their students, we appreciate that they are up against myriad pressures. There are often expectations to construct new buildings, repurpose older facilities, integrate new services and infrastructure, and maintain new facilities, all of which can lead to ever-increasing costs for schools.
It's important, then, that design, construction, and cost are seen as mutual imperatives. The practice must work with clients to achieve the best outcomes for students, teachers, and their broader communities. Through clever design choices and proper consultation with schools, we can create an end result that is fiscally viable, sustainable, future-proofed, and inclusive—work we are eager to continue with a cross-studio commitment to universal design and inclusive learning environments.
Inclusivity is a broad goal and statement that can mean something different for every school, educator, and student, but at its core, it is a focus on people-centered spaces that enable all individuals to feel welcome, safe, and secure.