Shirley Boys High School, Christchurch

Architect/Designer: ASC Architects

This idea behind this design was the ‘ultimate campus’ for Avonside Girls High School and Shirley Boys’ High School which share an 11.5-hectare site at Queen Elizabeth II Park. Each school maintains its own separate teaching spaces but enjoys combined shared areas that help them deliver efficiencies of scale that could not have been provided by each school alone. The shared areas mean the schools can offer students completely new, exciting experiences such as an outdoor ‘hard technology’ area that allows students to undertake large projects like building garden sheds or decks.

The design features a 750-seat performing arts centre, a 100-seat theatre, four full-sized sports fields with a 400m running track, three full-sized indoor gymnasiums, a café, and a fully equipped commercial teaching kitchen. Each school has two performing arts practice spaces with a control room for rehearsals to be recorded. The gyms and performing arts centre are also available for community use and the schools are set back from the road with numerous trees and landscaped areas making it a very green campus.

Significant design innovations by ASC Architects include the provision of all the future growth building area and an additional full-sized gymnasium all delivered within the budget of the original build. A large variety of Jacobsen flooring products were used to help bring this project together. Different material types were used to define spaces, align to the design vision, and offer durability throughout this project.