Jury citation
Fishermans Bend, as Australia’s largest urban renewal project, is providing an opportunity to get things right. The South Melbourne Primary School – Victoria’s first public “vertical school” – successfully integrates an early learning centre, maternal and child health, multipurpose community rooms, and indoor and outdoor multipurpose sports courts that are open to the community.
This multifaceted building program is supported by an open landscaped corner that presents to the street. The corner not only provides a forecourt to the building but is defined as a space for community congregation, a children’s playground and an outdoor space for learning. In programmatic terms, this space would ordinarily be managed through the intervention of a fence; however, through careful negotiation, it remains public, as a space that gives back.
Location: Southbank (VIC)
