Vertical Schools as Community Hubs
Abstract
Vertical schools, relatively new to Australia, are responding to increasing student numbers in central city suburbs with limited available land. School facilities such as drama, music and gym spaces, meeting areas, makerspaces, kitchen and eating spaces, and play spaces are typically located for potential community use. The analysis within this paper focuses on the traces of community connections that can be discovered from visual analysis of plans and occupied buildings. We compare emerging Australian vertical schools with European precedents. How and why are communities using vertical school spaces? What community spaces do students use and what are their adjacencies with school uses? What are the private, privileged and public spaces of vertical schools? Which schools operate as gated communities and how do the more porous examples address the safety of children? We consider northern European examples where vertical schools have had a longer history. Examples include the influential Danish Hellerup School, the Ørestad Gymnasium, the Sydhavnen School, and, the Finnish Saunalahti School and the Swedish Barkaby School. This forms part of a larger analysis proposed by the authors for vertical schools.
Keywords: vertical schools; community hubs; urban communities; urban
Authors' bio
- Dr Tony Matthews
Griffith University
Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning
- A/Prof Clare Newton
The University of Melbourne
Associate Professor in Learning Environments
- Dr Mirko Guaralda
QUT School of Design
Lecturer
- A/Prof Severine Mayere
QUT School of Built Environment
Academic
Clare Newton
Associate Professor in Learning Environments
The University of Melbourne
Clare, an architect and Doctor of Education, led two Australian Research Council Linkage Projects on learning space design. She is currently a Chief Investigator on two further Linkage Projects. Clare, a founding member of LEaRN, helped instigate the annual Talking Spaces symposia. Clare was Director of the Bachelor of Environments with over 2,000 students. She has been a Board Member of the Architects Registration Board of Victoria; elected Council member for the Australian Institute of Architects; elected President of the Association of Architectural Schools of Australasia; and Chair of the Validation Executive Committee for the Commonwealth Association of Architects.
Find an Expert profileTony Matthews
Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning
School of Environment and Science, Griffith University
Dr Tony Matthews MRTPI is an award-winning Urban and Environmental Planner, with portfolios in academia, practice and the media. He is an active scholar, public writer, speaker and broadcaster. His research interests include responding to new forms of urban change, community-led planning and institutional, governance and policy change processes. Tony has won three Awards for Excellence from the Planning Institute of Australia and was named one of Australia’s leading thinkers by The Conversation.
Expert profileMirko Guaralda
Lecturer
QUT School of Design
Mirko Guaralda (Ph.D., MHEd, DArch) is an academic at the Queensland University of Technology. His work focuses on people-place interaction, enquiring into the complex issues of urban density, place quality and community engagement. He was researcher at the United States Study Centre of Sydney in 2012; in 2017 he has been visiting professor at the Thammasat University of Bangkok, Thailand. Since 2018 he has been engaged also in research and teaching at the Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (China).
LinkedinSeverine Mayere
Academic
QUT School of Built Environment
Associate Professor Severine Mayere is an urban planning scholar with more than a decade of academic experience in Australia and internationally. She currently teaches and researches in the field of urban and regional planning at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. Severine holds a Master of Science and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University (United States), and a Master degree in Development and Town Planning from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne (France). Prior to joining QUT, Severine worked as a research associate at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany). Her current research focuses on growth management, plan evaluation, and stakeholder engagement. Severine is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.
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