In this issue of Sitenotes, we are having a closer look at our St Clair Recreation Centre and Edwardstown Oval redevelopment projects.
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This year we will be out of the office after Friday 21st, returning on the 2nd day of 2019. We wish you all the best for the new year!
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In this issue of Sitenotes, we are having a closer look at UniSA Cancer Research Institute.
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The commencement of the new financial year in 2018 witnessed some exciting organisational developments at Swanbury Penglase.
In 2016 Simon Best joined the team as Project Director and now we are pleased to announce his appointment to Directorship as of July 1st 2018.
We’re looking forward to broadening Simon’s role as he joins the Director group consisting of Stephen Penglase, Andrew Phillips, Wayne Grivell and Elizabeth Swanbury.
Since 2016 we’ve also had a number of Associate appointments, starting with Zoe Avon, Nick Grbin and Stephen Schrapel in 2017. This year we are also pleased to announce the appointment of Kate Beerworth to the position.
Zoe has been with us since 2004 and has played a key collaborative role in many of our educational and commercial projects, including an instrumental part in two well regarded and award-winning developments: the Christian Brothers College Junior School Building and the Margaret Ames Centre at Immanuel College.
Nick who started with Swanbury Penglase in 2010, is another valued senior team member and has delivered successful outcomes across a broad range of projects, including the Aeris Apartments at Bowden and the Beerenberg Farm Stage 2 Development at Hahndorf.
Stephen has been with us since 2015 and brings five years of experience with Heritage SA, ten years of private consultancy practice and an Architectural Doctorate along the way. His experience and skills have been invaluable in helping to both support and grow our Heritage team as well as providing valuable technical input to the broader office.
Kate joined us in 2016 and brings to the team over sixteen years experience in Interior Design. Most recently she led the design on the new Yurrebilla Centre at Seymour College which received a Regional A4LE (Association for Learning Environment) Award in the ‘Renovation under $2M’ category.
These appointments are evidence of the stability, experience and capabilities of our team; by far our greatest asset.
As always, please get in touch with any of our management group to discuss how we can help realise your next project.
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In this issue of Sitenotes, we are having a closer look at two recently completed projects which contribute to South Australian manufacturing.
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Swanbury Penglase wins Regional Award – Renovation/Modernisation Under $2M
The A4LE 2018 Conference was held this week in Sydney focussing on the 3R’s in the Exponential Age. a4le.org.au
The yearly regional conference covers Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and is always a lively and varied gathering of educators and those associated in the delivery of educational facilities.
A Regional Awards dinner and presentation is held on the evening before the final day and this year Swanbury Penglase was the winner of a Regional Award for the Yurrebilla Centre at Seymour College (check out the project here) in the Renovation/Modernisation under $2M category.
Warm congratulations to the College and to our project team. We are very appreciative for this opportunity and have enjoyed working with Seymour College on this transforming project.
Further, we acknowledge the effort of our contractor Partek, Project Manager ARK and the consultant team: BCA (Building Services), CPR (Structural), Rider Levett Bucknall (Quantity Surveyors) and Katnich Dodd (Building Certifiers). Special thanks also to Studio Piñata for their design of the integrated signage and a display which celebrates Seymour College’s history and the dreaming story of the great giant Yurrebilla, after which the centre is named.
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Yesterday saw the official opening of the University of South Australia’s Cancer Research Institute (formerly the Health Innovation Building – HIB)
This is a significant moment in what has been one of the largest projects Swanbury Penglase has delivered.
The $250 million dollar development is the result of over five years work in association with our architectural partners BVN Architecture.
At this time we thank and acknowledge those involved.
Firstly, to the University of South Australia with whom we have been working for in excess of 25 years.
Thank you for this opportunity and your trust in our abilities to deliver this landmark development and grand vision.
To Hansen Yuncken, the Managing Contractor. This was not our first project together and the trust built previously was evident as we worked together through the challenges and milestones to the delivery of something as complex as this building.
To BVN Architecture, the other half of our integrated design team, we have enjoyed the truly collaborative mindset that both our organisations have demonstrated in delivering this project. Together we have worked hard to help transform this part of the city; to realise one of the final parts of the new Biomedical Precinct.
To the wider consultant team including WGA, KBR + Arup and Rider Levett Bucknall, this project is the result of many people’s labours and talents with each playing its vital role in design and delivery.
Finally, a thank you to the Swanbury Penglase team, especially those who have been involved since the beginning of the project.
Jason Timberlake, Marty Frost, Peter Morris, Jasmine Brooksby, Josh Budarick, Matt Raven, Cecilia Tang and Ted Bourchier, these people have been the ‘engine room’ of the project and have been vital to its success.
Congratulations on a fantastic effort.
If you have any questions or would like to talk to Swanbury Penglase about the project or any aspects of it, please get in contact with Project Directors Andrew Phillips or Wayne Grivell.
Some links to aspect of the project can be found here
–University of South Australia – Cancer Research Institute
–First Look: Inside Adelaide’s Futuristic Museum of Discover
–Student Guided Tour Inside First Ever Lab Practical
–Channel 7 News Story – MOD Museum
Witold Generowicz is an architect and Senior Associate who has been with Swanbury Penglase since 1994. While he has experience in a wide range of projects he has a long standing interest in educational design, with a particular focus on the Reggio Emilia approach to education.
In November 2017, Witold attended the Re-Imagining Childhood conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to find out more.
Briefly, explain the Reggio Emilia approach?
Rather than seeing children as helpless empty vessels needing care and passively waiting to be taught, the Reggio approach sees each child as a fundamentally competent agent actively building an understanding of the world through investigation, hypothesizing and experimentation.
Essential to this is an enquiring and receptive approach by educators who build an understanding of each cohort’s interests, abilities, understandings and pre-occupations. On that basis, educators seek to provoke curiosity, stimulate investigation and extend students’ growing understanding of the world.
The educational process is highly visible and collaborative, with educators documenting their observations of students through a wide variety of media, sharing observations and insights with each other and with the parent community, as well as developing tailored ‘provocation strategies’.
Documentation also plays a key role in recording and communicating students’ activities. The emphasis is on process rather than on outcomes or deliverables.
The environment plays a critical role in this approach. Materials are deployed selectively to facilitate current investigations. Spaces are configured with a high degree of interconnectivity and variety. Students’ activities can take the form of projects that are sometimes long running, remaining in place and developing over days or weeks.
The approach is dynamic and evolving rather than didactic and static. As interest in the approach has burgeoned across the globe in recent decades, one of the key challenges for educators to deal with is how to develop an approach that works within the socio-cultural context of each community, which inevitably is different from the original context of Reggio Emilia.
What are its origins?
A young educator called Loris Malaguzzi was inspired by the initiative and dedication of villagers in a small northern Italian town called Villa Cella. Following World War Two and the fall of fascism, the villagers had dedicated themselves to the building of a school as their first priority of the reconstruction.
Malaguzzi drew on his training in education and psychology to formulate an approach for early childhood education that uncannily anticipated the revolutionary ideas sweeping through education today.
As Malaguzzi’s ideas attracted recognition and were taken up by increasing numbers of schools, the focus for development became the nearby city of Reggio Emilia, from which the approach takes its name.
How/when did you first come across it?
I had the great privilege of working with David Woolnough in 1994 on the development of an Early Learning Centre at St Andrews School. David had taken a keen interest in the approach, having visited Reggio Emilia himself in the preceding years.
The project was a golden opportunity both in its own right as a prominent building, and also in terms of developing the beginnings of understanding how spatial environments can support the approach.
How did this influence/impact the design and its outcome?
One of the key characteristics of the Reggio approach is an emphasis on community, both in terms of the children and parents, and connections between the school community and the wider community.
In Reggio environments, this element is given expression in the notion of the ‘Piazza’, a space within the centre that fosters community.
These considerations were behind the development of a large central communal space as a focus for the centre with large windows facing the street.
What are the benefits for users?
The central space is large enough to host functions and provides strong visual links between the street and the centre whilst maintaining security. It is also generously scaled and visually interesting, acting to draw attention to the activities of learning.
What are some lessons learned from the projects undertaken?
Our work on a number of Reggio projects, attendance at conferences, visits to other centres and a visit to Reggio itself have resulted in a greatly enhanced appreciation of the nuances involved with Reggio environments.
Reggio is not a dogma, either educationally or in terms of environment. Every centre is a unique expression of the particulars of its own context and community.
Where to from here?
Reggio inspired projects continue to make up a rewarding and exciting field to work in. It is particularly interesting to observe how contemporary developments in education reflect many of the principles that the far sighted Malaguzzi developed over fifty years ago.
Whereas Reggio originated as a model for early childhood, it is being widely embraced as a model for education more generally. With its intrinsic value, proven track record and the ongoing development of the approach across the world, we see it as being an invaluable frame of reference for many years to come.
What are some resources for those who want to find out more?
The Reggio Australia Information Exchange: https://www.reggioaustralia.org.au/
The South Australian Collaborative Childhood Project: https://www.decd.sa.gov.au/department/research-and-data/south-australian-collaborative-childhood-project
The 2017 Re-imagining Childhood Conference: http://reimaginingchildhood.aomevents.com.au/
Reggio Children: http://www.reggiochildren.it/?lang=en
The Reggio Foundation: http://reggiochildrenfoundation.org/?lang=en
The Loris Malaguzzi International Centre: http://reggiochildrenfoundation.org/607-2/story/centro-internazionale-loris-malaguzzi/?lang=en
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