Orana Steiner School: Kindergarten and Naturescape

KINDERGARTEN

Orana’s new Kindergarten was briefed to replace the original building, which burnt down in the 2003 Canberra Bushfires.

The new site is located higher up the hill and enabled a journey through the school to a terraced rock waiting area where the children can enter a magical zone through a bespoke jarrah gate.

The entry court leads onto the kindergarten cloakroom, then into an octagonal shaped room with a faceted ceiling, as if inside a low tent-shaped structure.

These rooms are finished with timber parquetry flooring, solid timber furniture, bread making benches, flour mills and various play areas.

Window shapes mirror the roof structure, allowing the whole space to become a nest for an emerging child into the realm of knowledge.

This kindergarten building flows onto an enchanting spiral garden, a truly beautiful landscape that is enhanced by waterharvesting.

NATURESCAPE

Designed to mimic nature and bring greenery to vast dry compacted ground, this 15yr old landscape perfectly displays differences in growth rate with trees onsite that are outside of the waterharvesting system.