School: Bradbury Park Playscape
Project:  Bradbury Park Playscape
Architect: Alcorn Middleton
Photographer: Christopher Frederick Jones 

Winner of the 2024 QLD Architecture Medallion and other prestigious awards, this groundbreaking project is designed to bring families and communities closer together. Unlike traditional playgrounds that cater solely to young children, it invites parents, grandparents, and people of all abilities and age groups to engage with the space. The architecture itself becomes the play—with a design abstracted from the natural land-scape and wildlife of its context, every element encourages discovery, creativity, and connection. This guided tour delves into its journey from concept to construction, show-casing original sketches and the design principles that earned it widespread acclaim for its visionary approach.

School: Mount Alvernia College
Project:  LaVerna Building, Anthony Building and La Forresta
Architect:  m3architecture
Photographer: Christopher Frederick Jones 

Mt Alvernia College is a remarkable Franciscan girl’s school in suburban Brisbane. St Francis is Patron Saint of Flora and Fauna, and now around 800 years since his death, his message seems as relevant as ever. 

The Master Plan for the College conceived of buildings (including administration, classrooms, Labs, home economics and tuck shop) as subservient backdrops to gardens. 

La Foresta is the main entrance to the College, offering daily experiences of gardens in bloom, beds lying fal-low, native bees swarming the hive, chickens cultivating the earth… In return, educational, social, emotional and spiritual nourishment is returned in abundance.

School: St Rita's College
Project:  Trinity Centre
Architect:  m3architecture
Photographer: Christopher Frederick Jones 

The building was modelled based on logic. Though its pragmatism offered satisfaction, it awaited fulfillment. 

One evening, St Rita emerged from the south elevation, the façade transfigured from pragmatism to attribution – RITA. 

This revelation inspired similar interest in the transfigure-able potential of the north façade, where just as im-probably as the south, ‘nano’ was revealed. Nano Nagle is the Foundress of The Sisters who established St Rita’s in 1926.

Together RITA and nano forge the Trinity Centre. The two names come together in the building, defining teaching and learning spaces resulting in an idiom for the past, present and future.