Woodleigh Futures Studio

When 39% of global emissions come from buildings and construction, 30% of all construction materials are wasted, and every new building displaces wildlife habitat, we asked: Why build a school when we could build an ecosystem?

The design process involved extensive co-design workshops with staff, students, and the school community to ensure that the result reflected the innovative learning program, the unique campus context and student needs while having a positive impact on the environment.

From the outset, the team approached material selection through a whole-lifecycle lens, only using products that are 100% recyclable or compostable with VOC-free, toxin-free, low-embodied carbon and carbon sequestering properties.

The building spans three pavilions linked by courtyards and sheltered outdoor learning areas, framing views of the neighbouring farm, nature reserve, and main school campus. The largest pavilion features a collection of five learning spaces and two quiet learning pods, providing a range of flexible learning settings that promote personalisation and student agency.

The second pavilion houses staff offices and amenities, while the third serves as the ‘homestead’, a communal kitchen and social space shared between students and staff, fostering a sense of belonging and community.

Outside, Aquaponic tanks with native fish, yabbies, and mussels provide ecological learning opportunities and a food source for students, and native plants fill out the green roof, providing a protected, drought-resistant habitat to foster the lifecycles of native butterflies, birds, and bees.

“The Futures Studio has delivered on each aspect of our brief, forming a vibrant hub for learning. More than just a building, it is a functional and durable ecosystem that supports the inextricable link between socio-emotional learning and our academic program, allowing for flexibility and collaboration.”
— David Bakker, Principal

The Futures Studio is a transformative example of good design that integrates environmental performance, social values, and user experience into every aspect of its design.

It goes far beyond meeting functional requirements by embodying the principles of regenerative design to actively restore and enrich both the natural and social environment in which it sits.

The user experience has been central to the final design. The learning environments were co-designed with students and staff, with each space separated by glazed sliding partitions, allowing for flexibility of use and collaboration between classrooms. Large sliding hemp whiteboards provide further learning and display opportunities while reframing the interior spaces as a linear gallery for the exhibition of student work.

All spaces are universally accessible. The students were univocal in their request for gender-neutral bathrooms on campus to create safe spaces for all. To accommodate this, the bathrooms are designed with additional acoustic and privacy features, as well as hand-wash options within each cubicle.

Aquaponics tanks house native fish, yabbies, and freshwater mussels, filling the courtyard with the sounds of running water and providing learning opportunities in ecology and biology, as well as a food source for students. Imagine catching a fish for lunch at school.

The modular construction system allows for easy extensions and additions to the building. Over time, the landscaping and extensive green roof will allow the dark silhouette of the building to become a shadow receding amongst a thriving, abundant ecosystem.

The project recently received the 2025 Victorian AIA Architecture Award for Sustainable Architecture, with the jury stating:

“This project represents the very best of sustainable practice in educational design. The building embodies the pedagogical goals of the school, providing an opportunity for students to gain real-world learning through the design.”

Achieving net-zero status, the Futures Studio is one of Australia’s most sustainable school buildings, integrating circular design and groundbreaking innovation from foundation to rooftop.

• The concrete waffle slab lies on a modular Cupolex dome ventilated system, replacing traditional polystyrene, allowing for separation and recycling at end-of-life. The self-supporting structure reduces the volume of concrete, lowering emissions, and improving ventilation and passive airflow.
• The innovative construction method utilises a steel truss post-and-beam frame, with durapanel straw wall panels and a recycled cork façade spray. The system is unitised as prefabricated components with zero offcuts, which—when combined with local procurement—has produced a near-zero-waste construction system. Only six skip-bins (out of the allocated 30) were collected over the 9-month program, with a 95% average recycling recovery rate.
• The straw wall panels were embedded with biochar so that as the strawboard breathes, it filters toxins, pollutants, and VOCs from the air.
• The learning spaces are fitted with acoustic ceiling panels made from recycled textiles, diverting thousands of clothing items from landfill while reducing noise and reverberation.
• The building features the first 100% Australian-grown and made hemp board, used for all joinery, cabinetry, and desks. Hemp crops grow in 90 days and sequester more carbon dioxide than any other plant humans grow.
• Green roofs are typically value-managed out due to structural costs; however, the ingenious structural system utilises the weight of the soil to stabilise the building, reducing the need for mass concrete footings and making it cost-equivalent to a conventional metal roof. The combination of plants, soil, and water on the roof also provides extraordinary acoustic and thermal insulation as well as a huge thermal mass.
• The building is powered by renewable energy, with solar panels shading the north, east, and west glazing to reduce thermal gain, while sub-circuit monitors display real-time energy use, enabling real-time learning.

The Futures Studio pioneers regenerative design, moving beyond sustainability to create a building that functions as a living ecosystem. It integrates carbon-sequestering materials, nearly zero-waste construction, conservation, and biodiversity—demonstrating the potential for architecture to have a positive impact on our environment. By embedding ecological, social, and educational value into the built form, it redefines school buildings as more than just shelter, creating an environment abundant with hands-on regenerative learning opportunities for students navigating a rapidly changing world and preparing them to tackle real-world environmental and societal challenges.

Furthermore, the green roof, planted with native species including the yam daisy (murnong) and kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra), provides a protected habitat safe from invasive species such as rabbits, thereby improving the lifecycles of native butterflies, bees, and birds—all of which contribute to our environmental ecosystem.

The impact extends beyond the school, as the design and documentation have been shared as an open-source, sustainable construction model under a Creative Commons license—serving as a blueprint for the future—allowing the research, development, and innovation that went into this building to be utilised for future school buildings, housing, and everything in between. The construction concept will influence all building types and provide us, as thought leaders, with an opportunity to improve the world in which we live.

Circular & Sustainable principles are embedded into every stage of the building’s lifecycle, from design and construction to operation and eventual disassembly. Examples include;

The concrete waffle slab is laid on a Cupolex dome system rather than traditional polystyrene, which reduces the volume of concrete required, lowers carbon emissions, improves under-slab ventilation, and allows for separation and recycling at the end of life.

The construction utilises a prefabricated steel truss post-and-beam frame, unitised as prefabricated components with zero offcuts.

On-site soil from the site cut was used for the green roof and landscaping. No soil left site.

The courtyard-based plan allows all rooms to have a Northern orientation, with solar panel eaves shading all North and West glazing from the hot Summer sun while allowing the Winter sun to penetrate the rooms and warm the thermally massive floor slab.

The drought-resilient wicking-bed green roof system holds 50mm of water in the base, increasing the resilience of plants to drought while also protecting the building from bushfires.

A near-zero-waste construction, with only six skip bins (from an allocated 30) used over the 9-month program and an average 95% recycling recovery rate.

All building materials are 100% compostable or recyclable, meaning there doesn’t need to be any landfill waste at the end of the building’s life.

Durapanel straw wall and ceiling panels are embedded with 100 grams of biochar per square metre, filtering toxins, pollutants and VOCs from the internal environment as the panels breathe.

Acoustic ceiling panels are made from recycled textiles, diverting thousands of clothing items from landfill.