Primary school precinct opens on the Sunshine Coast

A new primary school precinct designed to reflect the school's teaching philosophy and the site's pineapple-farm past has opened on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The finished primary school precinct at Suncoast Christian College, designed by M3 Architecture, features a new three-storey wing with open-plan teaching environments and connections to the outdoors. The building is wrapped in steel mesh, maximising ventilation and light penetration through to the verandahs while simultaneously keeping students safe.

M3 Architecture director Ben Vielle said they placed great importance on understanding the college's co-teaching model.

"Suncoast Christian College has a co-teaching pedagogy whereby two year levels of three streams are taught together as a stage. We devised a model for each stage where 150 students could cohabitate the space across two to three floors in various teaching modes. At various times of the day, they reconfigure to suit how they want to learn. Within those environments there are specialist spaces as well. Each of the three stages has a makerspace, a kitchen, and lounge areas. A lot of children refer to it as like their home," Vielle said.

The new wing accommodates 450 students between grades one and six. Spaces for each of the three stages - years one and two, three and four, and five and six -have been seasonally colour-coordinated to create a sense of belonging, as well as reference the site's history as farm land. Spaces for the grade one and two stage feature an autumnal colour palette, with rooms named after autumnal fruits to help students recognise seasonal produce patterns. Winter and spring themes have been selected for the other two stages.

In shared areas, there is a deliberate gradation of colour from the highly saturated entry to the more neutral, large teaching settings.

The project involved a highly collaborative process between the architect and the client, with the college providing consultation throughout the design process.

Suncoast Christian College principal Greg Mattiske said the building embodies the culture of the school. "All the things that we said were important to us and we wanted the building to do, have been expressed in the architecture," Mattiske said. "The light, space, colour, connection with the rural site and its history is so good for student and teacher wellbeing, it's palpable."

The concept designs for the precinct were unveiled in November 2021.