This is a building constructed around acoustic environments optimised for learning. The architecture emanates from the production of sound outwards. Every wall is placed, anchored and detailed to intercept, reflect and treat sound for the most enjoyable and effective experience of practice or performance. The Firbank Grammar ‘New Music School’ project enables the expansion of the school’s flourishing music program and is an unmistakably musical building. Works comprise the refurbishment of ‘Firbank House’, the school’s foundational building and the addition of a new acoustically tuned facility for rehearsal, tuition and performance. The architecture combines high-mass masonry construction for acoustic isolation with complex interior linings engineered to produce excellent clarity of sound for learning and performance whilst maintaining spaces that are flexible, functional and inspiring.

The exterior of the building is wrapped on three elevations by a screen that is perforated to represent the school’s song, both figuratively and in codified graphic notation. Details reference different historical forms of music notation throughout the building, with music on show from inside and out through plentiful glazing and of course the sounds of voice, acoustic and amplified instruments.

▼砖石砌体结构，masonry structure © Javier Márquez

▼穿孔板细部，details of the perforated panel © Javier Márquez