Educational Facilities Building Design – St Joseph’s College Toowoomba

Bringing new life to a 50-year-old building on the brink of demolition; the lower floor of the St Joseph’s College, Fogarty building has been transformed into a separate Year 7 locker hub and amenities facility. The space has been designed to be a private, nurturing environment to assist new students with their transition from Primary to High School.

The brief was to convert the existing lower floor science classrooms into an accessible and highly visible locker space in close proximity to the administration building, to ensure the younger students felt supported in their new high school environment. Comprising of 160 lockers, acoustics and egress was high on the priority list to enable large clusters of students to access the space efficiently and maintain a sense of calm.

At first glance, the lower floor science classrooms lacked appropriate ceiling height, natural ventilation and compliant access, with 150mm steps into every internal classroom. Further structural investigations and scanning of the slab also revealed lack of structural support to the concrete floor above. This required the already low ceilings to be re-enforced with large structural steel members, a fire protective lining, and a weatherproof / acoustic lining below. This resulted in multiple stepped ceiling heights and careful positioning of lockers under beams with 2100mm ceiling heights.

The awning roof downpipes could not sling back against the building from an eaves gutter without creating head clearance issues and bird nesting opportunity. Therefore, a box gutter was created from an upturned PFC member, creating not only structural support to the awning, but pulling the downpipes against the building line. A planter box and pits were situated below the box gutter, allowing overflow and cross rain to hit the garden buffer. A new glass facade to the upper floor provides visibility to the gutter and awning windows allow the maintenance crew to vacuum leaves from above.

Working closely with the schools’ finance manager and maintenance crew, there was a large emphasis on durability and reduction of maintenance costs. Structural steel CHS members were used in replacement of fragile PVC downpipes, pre-finished block work walls were selected instead of render/paint, and expressed joint compressed fibre cement was used in lieu of plasterboard linings to ceilings and internal amenity walls.

Perforated custom orb ceiling linings, in conjunction with the fire protective layer, planting and pealing back the external fabric created an amazing level of acoustic performance. During construction, the space could be filled with construction workers all using power tools and the noise reverberation was absorbed. This was particularly useful as the school occupied the upper science floor during construction.

Pealing back the layers and transforming the damp, mold ridden undercroft-like space into a semi-open Year 7 oasis, has significantly extended the lifespan of the St Joseph’s College historic Fogarty building. Sited at the schools main entry point, this building has acted as a beacon for many years. Maintaining its original form and scale, the newly purposed building will be more inviting for visitors and for attracting new students.