Almost a year after construction commenced, builder Rohrig, together with architects BVN, today handed over the completed Renaissance Centre to the School.
Principal Ms Shauna Colnan said, “I’m thrilled to receive the handover of the completed Renaissance Centre. It is a joyful event. This space is everything we were hoping for – and more. It is inspiring and has been delivered against a complex brief. This is going to change the educational experience for our students and our teachers and we can’t wait to open the doors to teaching and learning across the school next term.”
The Renaissance Centre’s Manuela Bachmann Dance Studio, named in honour of IGS foundational staff member, superb ballet instructor and long serving Director of After Care, Manuela Bachmann, provides a space that will facilitate the expansion of Dance at IGS and expand our offerings in the Performing Arts.
The Centre’s versatile facilities include a university-style academic lecture theatre, seminar rooms, break out spaces for collaboration and meeting rooms, as well as back of house facilities. The walls are adorned with stylised large-scale representations from The Italian Renaissance such as Michelangelo’s David and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa as we seek to inspire our students further to love and treasure learning.
Constructed within the site of a 130 year old wool store at the corner of Smail and Mountain Streets, beside our Fusion Building classrooms, The Renaissance Centre has been a major master plan project. 3,600 square metres of plaster board, 3,000 square metres of acoustic floor and ceiling insulation, 5,000 spring acoustic hangers and seismic bracing are among the items used to construct the ‘box within a box’ that the Renaissance Centre sits – or floats – within.
To enhance our students’ learning and performance opportunities and for the comfort of nearby residents and businesses, The Renaissance Centre has been sound-proofed to exacting standards; no sound in, no sound out. Australian made, fire-rated woollen curtains provide the ability to expand or divide the area into flexible spaces, while further deadening ambient sound.
Within its walls, nearby traffic is inaudible and acoustic silencers deaden sounds such as the Centre’s air conditioning.
The Renaissance Centre also champions sustainability, meeting Section J Energy Efficiency standards under the National Construction Code with features such as energy-efficient lighting and air conditioning systems.
The School looks forward to Term 4 when students will first experience this dynamic new teaching and learning centre.
