Commercial
Tech school uses cladding to bend white light and create digital rainbows
Tectura Architects
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE, A ‘MAKER’ INSPIRED NEW TECH SCHOOL
With a focus on creating an immersive, collaborative and student-led learning environment, the Architecture of the Banyule Nillumbik Tech School (BNTS) located at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Greensborough Campus references the internal programs through the building’s external skin.
The angularity of the building’s form represents a prism and the bending of white light, creating colours of the rainbow, while the pixelated squares represent the ‘digital’ within our lives and the increasing role of technology. Tectura Architects, in collaboration with Melbourne Polytechnic, have created a unique vision for the BNTS Tech School allowing the architecture to directly respond to the learning modules.
The building also serves as a third teacher with some of the internal wall linings, ceilings and interior flooring replaced with glazing to reveal the construction elements and services within the building 
This innovative design approach and visual presence embodies the facility’s objective to provide young people with the skills required to engage in contemporary work and life in an innovative, welcoming and evolving facility, which embraces the future.
James Hardie’s ExoTec™ facade panels were used to bring the design of the building form to life. The versatile and customisable cladding products were used to represent the bending of white light passing through a prism creating the colours of the rainbow and bringing the building to life.
The complex pixilated design gives context to the facility by showcasing the intersection between disciplines encouraged by the Tech School programs. The ExoTec panels, which can be cut and painted onsite, are pre-sealed and pre-primed for minimal paint preparation and provide a robust and crisp aesthetic adding to the architecture of this standout facility for the community.
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