Our 2018 proposal envisages the creation of a centre of excellence for vision and hearing-impaired learning for the Royal Institute of Deaf and Blind Children on a new site at Macquarie University in northern Sydney. The design brings together seven existing schools, clinical services, research, and administration facilities into a single unified building form. Sited within a stand of mature eucalypts to create a walled garden, the grouping forms a campus within a campus.

The relationship between buildings and landscape supports a planned pedagogical approach focussed on nature play, with a series of courtyards separating individual linked blocks of accommodation containing the various schools, clinical services and other functional areas. The individual blocks and courtyards are linked by a sculptural trellis shade structure that provides partial weather protection, solar and glare control and creates a memorable unifying form for the project and a rich and symbiotic relationship between the students, educators, researchers, building, landscape, and the wider campus beyond.