Rethinking the Relocatable
Portable classrooms began to arrive at the college early in the 1970’s. By the mid 1990’s they had grown in number, but in a haphazard and unplanned fashion.
The rooms seemed old even when they arrived on site. They were usually placed on any available flat ground with little thought for the overall impact on the amenity of the college and were a very pragmatic solution to the need for more classrooms.
As if to emphasise the separateness of the rooms, they had no physical connection with the existing buildings, offered no protection to students waiting to enter and the space surrounding the buildings was usually empty and barren.
This unpreposing area was where the work on transforming the school began. Simon Thornton developed a plan to guide the work. It should not have been a surprise that with work beginning in June, rain set in and soon turned the area into a mud patch befitting its heritage as the Moonee Ponds creek flood plan. Work proceeded despite this adversity.
The walkways, paths, rearrangement of rooms and introduction of trees and greenery gave us the spaces we see today.
The rooms seemed old even when they arrived on site. They were usually placed on any available flat ground with little thought for the overall impact on the amenity of the college and were a very pragmatic solution to the need for more classrooms.
As if to emphasise the separateness of the rooms, they had no physical connection with the existing buildings, offered no protection to students waiting to enter and the space surrounding the buildings was usually empty and barren.
This unpreposing area was where the work on transforming the school began. Simon Thornton developed a plan to guide the work. It should not have been a surprise that with work beginning in June, rain set in and soon turned the area into a mud patch befitting its heritage as the Moonee Ponds creek flood plan. Work proceeded despite this adversity.
The walkways, paths, rearrangement of rooms and introduction of trees and greenery gave us the spaces we see today.
