Dining and Assembly Hall, Brunswick Park Primary School

Dining and Assembly Hall, Brunswick Primary School

This Dining and Assembly Hall was designed by James Stirling and James Gowan and built between 1961 and 1962. The building is constructed of concrete, white and red brick, timber and glass, with minor late twentieth-century alterations.

The building is planned as a square divided into quadrants by four reinforced concrete beams that span between the external walls and a single central column. The southern half accommodates the main hall, while the northern half contains the service wing. The north-west quadrant houses a supervisor's office, staff room and stores, with the kitchen occupying the north-east quadrant. The building form is reinforced by landscaping that echoes the quadrantal plan through earth ramps with brick retaining walls, surrounded by an encircling path. Access is provided through off-centre doors on every elevation, approached by paths cut through external mounds that funnel towards the doorways.

The roof is particularly distinctive. Three square sections rise from the centre point, reaching maximum height at the west, south and east elevations. The north-west quadrant over the service wing is flat-roofed with a tall chimney at the north-west corner.

There is no principal façade; the building is designed to be viewed equally from all sides, though the north-west corner with its flat roof and chimney is the least dramatic. The split and rising roof allows extensive use of vertical glazing on the west, south and east elevations, while the jutting roof sections, ramp retaining walls, low and narrow side glazed panels and polychrome brick detailing provide visual contrast and interest. The principal windows are divided into six vertical and four horizontal sections with pivoting units for ventilation. The glazing has been replaced since construction, though the window form remains as originally designed. The smooth grassed earth banks form an integral part of the original design, perhaps intended to give the impression that the building had burst out of the ground.

Internally, the building is functionally divided into hall and service accommodation, though the quadrantal design remains legible. The north-west quadrant is subdivided into a series of small rooms accessed from a narrow west-east corridor, including storerooms for foodstuffs and cleaning equipment, a boiler room, staff room and supervisor's office. Many original internal features survive, including exposed red brick partition walls, wooden tongue and groove ceiling cladding, cast iron radiators and strip lighting. The food store walls are finished with floor-to-ceiling white glazed tiles and anti-slip tiled flooring. An original low horizontal window in the west wall of the staff room survives, though now secured with internal bars. Toilets were added to the south of this quadrant around 1995-6.

The kitchen occupies the north-east quadrant and is open-plan to the hall, with red-tiled floor and walls rising to main window height. Stainless steel units and an exposed extractor system dominate the space. A low horizontal window in the north wall survives but is likewise secured with bars.

The hall fills the southern half of the building. The roof design creates the impression of two adjoining rooms by dipping to a low beam dividing the south-west and south-east quadrants. Walls are constructed in stock brick, painted pale blue below main window height and left exposed above. The roof is timber tongue and groove cladding between timber rafters, with diagonal braces all painted white and lit by strip lighting. The floor is laid throughout in herringbone wood block. Vertical climbing frames fixed to the south and north walls appear to be original. The north-west wall is formed by large sliding doors, part of the original design, which conceal chair and equipment stores. Two low windows in the south and east walls have been blocked. The tilted roof throws light into the hall and creates shadows from the horizontal and vertical lines of the large windows and the diagonals of the roof beams.