Creating an emersive learning environment.

In collaboration with renowned builder Newton Manor Constructions and the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA), we created an interactive outdoor space for the Western Autistic School at their Niddrie campus. The mission was to deliver an outdoor space that complimented the schools highly involved learning process in a safe, practical environment.

Key Features

To make this outdoor space distinctive, we built several custom timber play structures, furniture, play equipment and a number of planting and garden beds. We also fitted the area out with rubber surfacing to ensure the safety of the children as they enjoy the space. Some of the critical elements of this project that will go unnoticed are the significant civil works at the beginning of the project, the demolition of the existing features, the custom fencing requirements we met, a bespoke irrigation system, permeable paving and an extensive drainage system throughout. 

Key Solutions.

In reflection of all of our projects, none of them come without their own set of challenges. For the Western Autistic School Project, there were a few distinct challenges that our team was proud to navigate and grow from successfully. 

Firstly, the project came with several access challenges and inherit considerations we needed to make for surrounding residents and restrictions. To coordinate the project effectively, both our long and short term planning needed to be razor-sharp. Getting the project finished on time was our priority, but so was minimising the project’s overall impact on local traffic or impacting each day’s busy drop off and pick-up.

Secondly, as a project of this scale has so many moving parts, we had an enormous amount of trades, suppliers and stakeholders to coordinate. To overcome this, we met daily with the project’s builder and the school to ensure we were always on the same page. 

A few more challenges were the inevitable mess that comes with large-scale winter projects. To minimise this, we laid down chip-rock to ensure our trucks couldn’t be traced with a mud trail all around the neighbourhood. We also encountered a number of old unknown services, which led us to get a service locator in to check the site. Lastly, we constantly had to adjust the project’s overall designs to ensure the original vision was implemented in real life. This required numerous request for information notices (RFIs), which took weeks each time we needed them, but it ensured we completed the project to spec.

Project Outcomes

In the end, we brought to life an outdoor space that will help the team at Western Autistic School continually deliver their outstanding educational service. The space is engaging, low-maintenance, safe for all pupils, and hopefully becomes a place that creates great memories for everyone who uses it for years to come. It was a pleasure being a part of such an important project.