ASPECT Studios: The new Cranbrook Junior School was designed with the ambition of creating a ‘school in a park’. Working closely with Tzannes Associates, ASPECT Studios developed the landscape design to provide flexible spaces that best meet teaching, learning and play requirements. The landscape consists of tilted turf planes, mass planted banks, timber and concrete seating pods and groves of tree planting. The large turf planes allow for the assembly of children and accommodates informal play during recess and lunch hours. The central courtyards have been designed to read as ‘green spaces’ at the heart of the school.

Small ‘pods’ surrounded by timber and concrete benches are etched out of the green spaces. The range of seating opportunities allow for small or large groups of children to congregate and play. The school was required to provide vehicular access through the centre of the grounds – a challenge the design team resolved by creating a high quality paved shared road that is closed to vehicles during school hours when it becomes a plaza for the students to use. The courtyards also double as potential learning areas that small classroom groups can gather. The landscape design also included four tennis courts and re-orientation of sporting fields to the south of the main school.

Client: Cranbrook Junior School
Scope: Concept design, design development, documentation, construction services
Team: ASPECT Studios, Tzannes Associates Architects.
Location: Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia
Year: 2012
Budget: $3.5 million
Photography: Simon Wood
Area size: 13,400 sqm