Brighton High School, designed by JAWSARCHITECTS and completed in 2024, stands as a remarkable example of contemporary educational architecture that thoughtfully integrates Indigenous cultural heritage with modern learning environments. Located in Battery Point, Australia, this 7,602 square meter facility serves up to 600 students across grades 7-12, representing a significant investment in aspirational and inclusive education with a strong emphasis on both indoor and outdoor learning spaces.
The school's design draws profound inspiration from the Jordan River, known by its Indigenous name Kutalayna, which flows through the landscape and provides a geographical connection between the high school and its primary feeder schools upstream. This natural feature has served as an informal boundary for Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) peoples for thousands of years, historically distinguishing the lands of the Big River people from those of the Oyster Bay people, with both groups regularly gathering in this area for special occasions and cultural exchanges.
The architectural team, led by Chris Egan with key contributions from Scott Verdouw, Hanz Lee, Thomas Avery, Kaelan Durbin, and Tian Yao, developed a master plan that honors this traditional land use through thoughtful spatial organization. The school is structured around two interdependent precincts that turn inward to embrace a central gathering space, creating a powerful connection to the area's deep sense of place and cultural significance. This narrative framework provides students with opportunities to develop appreciation for Palawa history while supporting a contemporary pedagogical approach to education.
The northern edge of the campus establishes a civic presence through community-oriented structures that are intentionally single-story and domestic in scale. These buildings provide a familiar and welcoming introduction to the school, creating an approachable threshold that invites community engagement. The southern edge features more permeable Learning Communities, where structured teaching spaces along the perimeter connect seamlessly with carefully designed landscaped areas, contributing positively to students' overall wellbeing and educational outcomes.
At the heart of the campus, the central Learning Street functions as both a natural divide and a unifying element. This immersive, sinuous landscaped space accommodates various activities including school gatherings, informal learning opportunities, quiet contemplation, and passive recreation. The design narrative extends into the physical form of the buildings, where the geomorphology of the traditional Aboriginal territories is referenced through careful attention to building form, massing, and texture.
The architectural language employs patterned brickwork to establish visual coherence across the campus, while color variations distinguish between coastal and highland environments on either side of the Learning Street. This subtle differentiation reinforces the cultural narrative while creating distinct identities for different areas of the school. A dramatic sweep of folded roofs draws inspiration from the topography of surrounding hills, with their layered composition serving as a metaphor for the region's native canopy trees and understory vegetation.
Highlight windows strategically separate roof planes to create spaces of varying heights, each tailored to meet specific pedagogical requirements while allowing natural light to filter into central collaboration areas. The lower roof sections create human-scale environments that extend beyond building faces to provide covered walkways on both sides of the Learning Street, establishing meeting places where students can share knowledge and build friendships through respectful interaction with each other and meaningful connection to place.
The project represents a successful collaboration between multiple disciplines, with interior design by K2LD Architecture and landscape architecture by Playstreet, all working under the coordination of JAWSARCHITECTS. Photography by Natasha Mulhall captures the thoughtful integration of architecture, landscape, and cultural narrative that defines this exceptional educational facility. Brighton High School stands as a model for how contemporary school design can honor Indigenous heritage while creating inspiring environments for 21st-century learning.
