Sustainable school wins AFS Certified Timber Award

14 October 2016 News

Thanks to their commitment to environmental sustainability, Law Architects have won the prestigious Australian Forestry Standard Ltd Certified Timber Award at the Australian Timber Design Awards.

Their winning project was the redevelopment of the Woodleigh School homestead development at Langwarrin South, a Melbourne suburb.

Locally-grown, PEFC-certified timber

One of the key visions for the Woodleigh School redevelopment was a commitment to environmental sustainability which required sourcing all local or Australian products wherever possible and ensuring that these products were sustainably sourced and manufactured.

The winning entry explained that Australian certified timber is a key component to the sustainable outcome desired by the designers.

Woodleigh School principal Jonathan Walter said the award was an “outstanding result” for the school, especially considering the standard of competition. “Our homesteads provide a home away from home for students at school,” Mr. Walter said. “They blend social learning spaces with open-planned, flexible teaching spaces, and connect beautifully with our natural environment.

“This is an exceptional project, chiefly because the design team’s deep understanding of the school’s educational philosophy is manifest in every aspect of the homestead design. Woodleigh’s commitment to environmental education is visibly embedded in the environmental function of the buildings.”

The Woodleigh Homesteads are now part of a major research collaboration called Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change, an Australian Research Council Linkage project that will run over the next four years and will investigate the impact of new learning spaces within schools.