Solais Building Domremy College Five Dock
The Solais Building provides fully-accessible spaces for innovative STEM approaches, flexible collaboration and traditional study. This includes learning spaces and classrooms for Years 7 and 8, a new Library, Theatrette, tutorial rooms, tech-equipped maker spaces, incubator spaces, senior study spaces and a quiet reflection space. Abundant natural light, a fluid floorplate and robust materiality combine to create a best-practice educational environment.
Wellbeing of staff and students has been prioritised in the full suite of building services our team designed for this project. The mechanical ventilation system optimises fresh air intake to provide exceptional indoor environment quality, the lighting strategy leveraged extensive use of natural daylight, and our sustainability and structural engineering knowledge supported a design shift towards lightweight building materials.
"The design emphasis on natural ventilation to ensure a healthy indoor environment means Solais has fresh air levels that well and truly exceed Australian standards. The benefit of this is now very clear in relation to reducing risks of airborne contagion. It is an excellent example of the value of future-proofing building services and exceeding minimum compliance benchmarks." Binaya Karki, Associate.
Collaboration between engineering disciplines, and the architecture and construction teams, has resulted in an outstanding learning environment.