Bira Bira Early Learning Centre

Awards:
'Silver' at Australian Design Awards 2023
'Silver' at Melbourne Design Awards 2022
'Silver' at GOV Awards 2022

Demonstrating an inventive, adaptive remodelling of an existing warehouse, our project presents an exemplary learning environment for both children and staff at Bira Bira Early Learning Centre.

The design outcome demonstrates how early learning educators and carers can be better supported in the workplace, with the strategic inclusion of areas that foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Incorporation of these fit-for-purpose spaces enables engagement with external specialists and service providers as well as appropriate areas for withdrawal and respite during the work day.

Our empathetic design of Bira Bira Early Learning Centre fosters an environment that is dignified, valued and encourages collegiality among carers and children and parents.

With a strong education vision to create an enhanced learning experience, the brief from our clients; who are also operators of this centre, was a layered and ambitious one. It required the design to accommodate an emphasis on education during the early years, support children with special needs and provide an environment that better-nurtured childhood development overall, as well as the role of parents and carers.

Realising this vision necessitated generous learning and support spaces that exceeded the legislated standard for floor area and ceiling height. Our clients were also adamant that the spatial design and layout be easily replicable for both expansion of their own brand and to positively influence the development of other centres. Specific areas that supported their educational vision included a dedicated dining room and a library, both of which are unique features in the Australian early learning landscape.

We responded to the nuanced brief by questioning the fundamental structure of early learning centres and conducting multiple investigative feasibility studies. Out-of-the-box thinking led us to reimagine the potential of an industrial warehouse, repurposing its expansive volume, height and light into a form fit for the dynamic brief requirements. Although a complex repurposing in the first instance, the warehouse is a readily available asset with fairly standard floor plates facilitating our design to act as a blueprint for future early learning centres. By utilising an existing warehouse shell, greater amenities and gross floor area were provided for a cost that would be similar to a typical, free-standing early learning centre.

Bira Bira is innovative in both its education vision and the centre’s design outcome. Firstly, the centre’s dynamic layout provides both an optimal educational environment and a replicable model for the innovative adaptive reuse of an eminently available and standardised light industrial asset class.

Complementing the show-stopping internal courtyard are the generous learning spaces, providing ample space for creative activities. These open-plan rooms are approximately 20% larger than the legislated standard. Play spaces are strategically positioned in a circulatory spatial arrangement, which allows for organic socialisation as well as room for separation between groups.

Visually, raked ceilings and clerestory windows take advantage of the warehouse volume. These features, as well as the ubiquitous connectivity with the outdoors, combine to imbue the centre with light and spaciousness uncommon in childcare environments.

We undertook site investigations and feasibility studies over many years to identify an appropriate site for an early learning centre.

While offering an ideal expanse of flexible space, the warehouse shell presented some initial challenges, requiring the installation of many new services and facilities in order to meet the increased amenity demands of its new context. In order to provide the legislated outdoor area within the warehouse footprint, we opened up the roof along its central spine, effectively illuminating spaces within.

Internally, industrial space gives way to an empathetic design, recognising the diverse experiences of its end users: children, educators and parents. Seamlessly delineating private spaces from main areas, the varying needs of each group are accommodated.

On arrival at reception, a child’s first impression is of the outdoor play area, ensuring a warm welcome. The provision of support areas and consulting rooms better equip the Centre to nurture children with special needs, who may require dedicated services such as occupational therapists.

Both the dining room and dedicated library space act as soft thresholds between pick-up and drop-off points, as a child moves from the care of their parents into the centre. These areas encourage parents to pause with their children, gradually easing the transition of care through intentionally intimate spaces within the vast warehouse structure.

Being a sensitively adapted remodelling project, our design of Bira Bira ELC demonstrates the untapped opportunity in extending an industrial building’s lifespan. Offering three times the floor space of a standard suburban lot - which would require extensive demolition to achieve the same scale - our replicable model for a warehouse-based early learning centre is a low-waste construction alternative. This repurposing approach works with the structure to effectively minimise environmental impact over time while maximising the building’s value in the community.

Multiple sustainable and energy-efficient initiatives are integrated into the structure of the building, including inbuilt rainwater harvesting and solar panels. Demonstrating a synergy between design and purpose, these ideas are reflected in the centre’s teachings, with children taught to recycle and repurpose materials in their creative play. In this way, sustainable practice is not only reflected in the design approach but is inherently woven into the educational fabric of design use, contributing to an environmentally conscious future generation.

Natural ventilation and passive cooling are incorporated via the configuration and indoor/outdoor connectivity of the courtyard opening which also provides a superior level of flexibility that supports a highly education-focused and activity-based approach to early learning. In designing an open space to facilitate sustainable natural airflow and light, the approach has the added value of providing passive surveillance opportunities as Centre managers can enjoy monitoring the children’s outdoor play from even indoor vantage points.