This holistic premise frames the design brief for Plystudio Architects and their project-delivery partner The Architects Circle. Ar. Victor Lee of Plystudio Architects explains the brief's complexity, "From the very beginning, we realized that it is not just a school. The programme has multiple components we have to deal with. How do we create shared spaces such that these components are well-integrated, exist within one building, and have their own function to play within the inclusive community? Also, how do we house them in distinctive parts of the building so that it supports their workflow? The programmes are actually quite intricate."
For Plystudio, the challenge was to provide a legible and coherent framework for the range of education, training, corporate, social, and other ancillary spaces to cling onto and co-exist symbiotically. The architects indirectly found their answer in the typology of the existing school building. The pre-existing Rainbow Centre - a typical school building with many typological brethren - had a generous central courtyard with classroom-flanked corridors that conveyed a repetitive, institutional feel. For the architects, the light-filled courtyard was an important wayfinding device and an anchor space for social congregation. Nevertheless, the old classroom corridors were insular and cold, if efficient.