mcbride charles ryan: penleigh and essendon grammar school junior boys building

You points are quite salient, I agree. On the other hand whose perception is more important in this case? Ours or the childrens? In a psychological sense young people do live in a “one-dimensional” world, it’s how their still undeveloped neurological systems process information. Now, I could see how the argument could be made that the structure should therefor serve to draw them to more complex and subtle elements, or at least get them to learn to recognize and come to have a constructive relationship to that which is not as literal, a vital quality that extends far beyond architecture. I don’t know. But it is an area which I feel is ripe for multi-disciplinary study; what would the ideal school look like? What is the ideal ratio of sophistication and conceptual accessibility (from their perspective)? Would adults also find it attractive? The castle at Disneyland comes to mind; hideous in many ways, surely, but also incredibly powerful in its ability to connect with young minds. This particular school appears to have perhaps strayed a bit to far into the literal and heavy-handed, but is that light-years more appropriate than the home-depot modernism of the average new American school (my country)?

And let me add one more thing. Too one dimensional, which is the opposite of what Good Architecture should be. We crave the Multi-dimensional and must live and breathe it ! If I didn’t know it I would guess one of the children designed it, or say by a group of children as a class project.

Not good! But not horrible either. Just seems to be rather minimal. A step backward perhaps.

Interesting, my first gut reaction to the structures silhouette was that it appears rather ominous and mildly threatening…but perhaps it creates an attractive edginess that is, dare I say, helpful, in creating an attractive atmosphere to modern children…it’s like going to school in a converted evil castle, adventurous, challenging, engaging, risky. This is good architecture.

Is the Penleigh and Essendon grammar school the last post-modern design or the the first neo-post-modern?

the section reminds me of the tention Utzon achieved with bagsvaerd church’s section, albeit motivated by different intentions I am guessing