Dramatic and beautiful. Fitting for a concert hall.
Sydney Grammar School is a private, boys only preparatory school located in Sydney Australia. The headmaster, John Vallance describes the school location as a crammed inner-city site. “The school has grown up like a medieval village over the years and Sydney’s grown up around it”. He describes the lack of space for the school as a “problem the school has had for the last hundred years”.
In the 1980’s, the trustees sold the airspace above the school, leaving the only option for expansion to dig down through the sandstone bedrock.
The school went through several architects who said it couldn’t be done, before they found PTW Architects,who were willing to give it a shot.
Vallance, in a moment of charming honesty admits that he thought digging the auditorium out of rock might be cheaper than traditional construction, because you wouldn’t have to build walls. The end result, while certainly not cheaper is one of the most beautiful high school auditoriums I have seen.
Dramatic lighting highlights the sandstone the auditorium was carved out of.
The space is under the schools playground area- its roof is a basketball court. The arch structure was built first, with the basketball court on top, allowing the school to use the basketball court while the excavation and construction of the auditorium went on below.
The floor in front of the stage has stackable bleacher seating so that it can be used for testing and other activities.
If Sydney Grammar School had been located on a different site with plenty of space they would have certainly built a perfectly nice auditorium space above ground. Because of the space constrains they were forced to seek out alternative solutions and the result is a far more interesting and dynamic space than most high school auditoriums. One reason I love renovations and buildings with challenging sites is that often, the best designs come out of working within the constraints of the situation, and you get creative and beautiful spaces that otherwise wouldn’t happen from building on a fresh site. Of course, having a lot of money helps, and at a tuition cost of $31,000 a year,Sydney Grammar School isn’t exactly a public school struggling to get by.
Therefore, lesson learned: have lots of money and challenge yourself with a difficult site. Perfect formula for great spaces!
Spaces for learning, and learning from spaces. 