What was once an empty block beside the Broadmeadows Health and Community Centre of Excellence is now the social heart of Hume Tech School. The landscape gives students room to sit, gather and spill outdoors, drawing learning out of the classroom and into lived experience.
Seating ranges from relaxed concrete walls to timber-topped, DDA-compliant benches, while organic garden beds carve out coves of differing character. Indigenous and native planting, with a few exotics for contrast, offers a living lesson in local flora.
Two late additions sharpened the design. The Serpentine Wall arrived at the very end of the design process and became its most playful gesture. A 40-metre ribbon of activity, split in two, twists through angles, seats and shifting widths, inviting students to paint it, bounce balls off it, balance along it, or simply lean, sit and lie back.
Joining it, Seven Sisters – Karatgurk, an artwork by Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder Aunty Kim Wandin and Chris Joy, found a place within the landscape. It tells of the sisters who brought fire to Earth, a welcome to Country at the school’s entrance.
From the road, two shelters announce the school, covering U-shaped seating walls wrapped in planting.
Tucked into the driveway, a native grass island quietly makes the boldest statement. Left to self-seed beneath a light bush mulch, it provides crucial habitat and needs little upkeep, demonstrating the power and beauty of our flora systems.
Location
Broadmeadows, Victoria
Role
Landscape Architect
Client
Bendigo Kangan Institute (Lead Consultant: Brand Architects)
Construction Budget
$450K
Traditional Owners
Wurundjeri People
Photographer
Marnie Hawson