2021 National Award for Educational Architecture

Jury citation

This work is a considered exploration of the relationship between form and use, with the soundwaves of music delivered in frozen forms on a vibrant campus. This vibrancy does not detract from the regard the forms have for the historical buildings; there is a deftness in the way the forms are at once deferential to heritage and complete in their singularity.

Ideally considered for the use of adolescent boys, there is a humanizing element in the use of forms that shows a deep understanding of the tasks to hand. The work takes a further step to seek to change the behaviour of the students and causes that behaviour to change tempo in any relation to the architecture. The sense that a building is able to affect tempo and movement is clearly a laudable pursuit in such a building. It surprisingly does this with the forms and spaces as well as the colours and musical concepts that are palpable. It is clear that every tool in these architects’ repertoire has been put to relevant use and the school is much the richer for it.

Project credits

Architect: McBride Charles Ryan; Project team: Debbie Ryan, Robert McBride, Manning McBride, Georgina Karavasil Papargiris, Bernice Chua, Matthew Tibballs; Builder: Bear Projects; Services engineer: ECM Group; Structural engineer: Drew Rudd; Town planner: ARG Planning; Building surveyor: Floreancig Smith Building Surveyors

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Music House is located in Essendon, Victoria, on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation.