Genton recently provided pro-bono design services to Kids Like Us, who work with twice-exceptional students on their educational journey, for the new Tombolo Academy. The concept is a design guideline for a flexible educational environment facilitating ‘strength based’ learning according to the unique learning plan of each individual student.
The design direction for the interior fit-out draws upon a domestic familiarity and sensibility combined with hints of the whimsical found in youth fantasy literature. The client’s desire to maximize the utilization of learning spaces and multi-functional surfaces is essential to the ‘learning through experimentation’ method, whereby students develop a sense of ownership and expression in the spatial interior. These include writeable, peggable, and felt tactile surfaces to encourage hands-on learning.
The concept includes a variety of classroom spaces for children aged 5 to 18, as well as informal study niches, a spill out corridor, communal kitchen, technology room, administrative areas, and staff and student amenities. Reinterpreted interiors provide tactile and engaging experiences for a variety of new communal and private learning spaces in a sensory friendly colour-pallet.
It has been inspiring for the Genton team to work with an organisation at the forefront of innovative learning methodologies, and we look forward to seeing Tombolo Academy enriching the lives of a new generation of twice-exceptional students in the years to come.
Tombolo Academy has recently been approved by the Victorian Registration & Qualifications Authority to welcome students from Term 1, 2021.
For more information, please visit www.tombolo.org.au
