This small suburban school was named the world’s best new building
CNN
A humble school in Australia has fended off competition from skyscrapers, museums and airport terminals to be named World Building of the Year 2024.
A humble suburban school in Australia has fended off competition from skyscrapers, museums and airport terminals to be named World Building of the Year 2024. Darlington Public School, in the Sydney suburb of Chippendale, beat more than 220 other shortlisted designs to win the coveted annual prize at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore on Friday. Opened last fall, the project combines an angular brick campus building, featuring a distinctive “sawtooth” roof, with landscaped outdoor spaces, including a large basketball court and a community garden. Softly curved metal screens surround a series of open-air terraces, allowing daylight to filter in while protecting students’ privacy. A school had long been on the south Sydney site, though the old 1970s building was no longer fit for purpose, according to fjcstudio, the design firm behind the project. The Sydney-based architects said their new design had “radically transformed” the school to offer “new and contemporary learning environments,” though the project was intended to “capture the spirit” of the original campus. Housing a preschool, kindergarten and primary school, the new campus will be able accommodate more than 500 students, according to the school’s website. A two-stage building process meant classes were able to continue throughout construction. In its project description, fjcstudio said Darlington Public School had “strong connections to Aboriginal people.” The design firm said it helped preserve this cultural heritage by putting indigenous art in the school hall, entrance reception and classrooms. Aboriginal murals that had been painted on the old school’s walls were meanwhile reproduced in the new building’s cladding.
Researchers are uncovering deeper insights into how the human brain ages and what factors may be tied to successful cognitive aging ((is successful the best word to use? seems like we’ll all do it successfully but for some people it may be healthier or gentler or slower?)), including exercising, avoiding tobacco, speaking a second language or even playing a musical instrument.