With a growing inner urban population across Australian cities, vertical schools are on the rise across Australia. From pre-school through to high school and tertiary education providers, we are seeing facilities being built up, rather than spreading out, with recreational spaces located within buildings and on roof tops.
As education evolves, vertical schools have become a defining feature of modern learning environments. At SEMZ, we’re proud to be at the forefront of delivering these complex, future-focused campuses.
With extensive experience managing the development of new schools and campuses SEMZ has developed a strong reputation for the successful delivery of complex and thoughtfully designed vertical education facilities. These multi-storey schools are not only architecturally sophisticated but demand innovative solutions to accommodate the latest pedagogical insights for learning, movement and safety, alongside community integration within a compact footprint.
As Project Manager and Superintendent for the $115m (3,000 student) Greater Shepparton College, the $84m Fitzroy Gasworks Senior Campus, the $50m McKinnon Secondary College and $55m North Melbourne Primary School Molesworth St Campus (amongst other school and Higher Education facilities) SEMZ are honored to play a significant role in delivering the educational spaces for future Victorian children.
These buildings incorporate a wide range of modern learning environments including advanced science and technology labs, design and arts studios, performance spaces, gymnasiums, commercial kitchens, rooftop recreational areas, and landscaped outdoor zones—all within vertical layouts that maximise space and functionality.
From strategic planning and stakeholder engagement through to delivery and post-occupancy review, our deep knowledge of education infrastructure and operational school environments allows SEMZ to address the unique challenges vertical schools present, including circulation planning, vertical transport, zoning, and integration of indoor and outdoor learning.
SEMZ’s involvement in delivering the transformative Greater Shepparton Secondary College began with provision of critical property advisory services in guiding site selection and master planning processes. As the project evolved, SEMZ took on the role of Project Manager, overseeing the seamless realisation of the state-of-the-art Greater Shepparton Secondary College and the Children and Families Centre in Mooroopna.
The Wurun Senior Campus in North Fitzroy is a vertical and sustainable campus accommodating up to 650 secondary students from Collingwood College and Fitzroy High School. The six-level building supports diverse learning styles and modern teaching methods. It features three multipurpose sports courts in an innovative stacked layout, with the second-floor sports facility integrated with the adjacent Fitzroy Sports Centre enabling community access outside school hours.
McKinnon Secondary College East Campus is a four-storey building that runs the length of the site, equipped with modern learning environments for science, technology, design, art, music and drama. It also includes outdoor sports facilities and landscaped areas. The facility also includes a gymnasium with retractable seating and a commercial kitchen, both designed for shared community use.
North Melbourne Primary School, Molesworth St Campus is located in an inner city suburb on a land size of just 5,500m. The vertical campus optimises the site to maximise outdoor play space through its innovative design. The project includes specialised learning spaces, including music and performing arts rooms, a gymnasium and a library, as well as an onsite kindergarten catering for 66 children.
SEMZ Director Ken Santamaria is proud of the impact SEMZ has had in this space – ‘It’s exciting to be involved with the rapidly changing built form of Victorian Education. To have had such a significant role in delivering these large scale vertical education facilities for students and their surrounding communities has been a fantastic and fulfilling experience for our team.’
Over the past decade, the SEMZ team has had a close working relationship with Dr Ben Cleveland – Associate Professor in Learning Environments (University of Melbourne), seeking pedagogical advice and benefiting from his vast experience consulting on education facilities worth over $1.5B over the ten years.
Discussing the design of vertical schools and innovations to teaching and learning spaces, Dr Cleveland explained that it’s not the verticality that’s driving pedagogical design development, rather it’s the lessons learned over the last decade from the delivery of new schools generally that’s aiding the creation of effective architecture for contemporary education. ‘The verticality is not the driver of learning space change in terms of pedagogical function. Rather, the need for inner city schools has come at a time in Victoria when schools are being built with more fluid and interconnected environments that embody the advantages of complementary spaces that can accommodate different teaching and learning activities.’
New Vertical Schools ranging from four to seventeen levels are now being commissioned across Australia. The schools are designed to accommodate the full range of teaching, administration and recreational activities within larger, more complex buildings, with outdoor spaces often constructed on upper levels to complement limited ground floor outdoor spaces.
In differentiating the features of these new urban vertical schools from the traditional green field sites, the use of space and time is an important consideration. There is less outdoor space available and it’s the access to the specialist facilities and outdoor play space which can be challenging. Dr Cleveland points out that re-thinking the space/time operations of the school can alleviate problems. ‘It’s necessary to re-think the school’s operations and look at how they are using time – for example, who is using outdoor spaces and when. Rather than it being the norm that everyone has recess and lunch time at the same times of the day, it’s exploring the space/time equation more creatively.’
With experience in project managing new builds and upgrades to a rich variety of schools across Victoria, the SEMZ team relish the opportunity to work with highly skilled project teams to navigate the numerous challenges of delivering new educational facilities. We understand that schools are more than buildings—they’re dynamic communities significantly shaping the lives of young people and their families. We’re proud of our extensive expertise and success in navigating design and delivery complexity to realise the vision for these facilities, now standing as a sustainable asset for generations to come.