DTVA Christ Church Grammar School / Donaldson + Warn

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Text description provided by the architects. The client, Christ Church Grammar School, requested a new facility that would provide the spatial and functional facilities for manual crafts and visual arts education. It was equally important to the School that the prominent corner site was furnished with an attractive building that positively addressed the school campus as well as the busy streetscape.

At the urban scale, the new DTVA is set back, in a gesture of respect, to reveal the beautiful architecture of the neighbouring Anglican Church and the distinctive tree that marks the intersection. DTVA provides students and teachers with the latest equipment, technology and facilities in a variety of spaces arranged to support the most current educational practices. The finished complex is considered a state-of-the-art facility for a secondary school.

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Sustainable buildings are important to Christ Church Grammar School. In addition to the passive design principles providing cross ventilation and natural light through perimeter windows and skylights, the high energy demands of this fully equipped facility utilise a geo-thermal bore and subterranean air-handling system to assist in the heating and cooling requirements. This technology, the first of its kind in Western Australia, significantly reduces the costs of energy.