Brief
Design a new flagship centre for leading Australian childcare business Mother Duck that’s child-centric, nature-focussed, and aligned with the brand’s philosophy: raising eco-conscious future generations and teaching children independent, sustainable, productive habits.
A Living Building challenge
The team at Mother Duck are dreamers; they’re inventive, forward-thinking, and open to big, bold ideas. A key piece of their approach revolves around connecting children and nature through considered biophilic design — an element they wanted highlighted in their new flagship centre located in Ripley Valley, Queensland.
Biophilic design takes its cues from the well-established concept that contact with nature provides numerous physical, mental, and social benefits for humans — and particularly for children. We took this idea and diffused it throughout our spatial design for Ripley, creating a child-centric environment populated with interactive nature zones, sleeping areas, construction zones, and the like.
Alongside creating childhood magic in the form of innovative learning and immersion in nature, Mother Duck had another lofty goal: becoming Queensland’s first-ever Living Building and the first standalone living childcare centre in Australia.
The world’s most rigorous standard for sustainable buildings, the Living Building Challenge is an international sustainable design framework that aspires to a future where buildings generate their energy from renewable sources. Buildings that achieve the certification must meet a holistic standard that bridges seven key spheres: place, water, energy, health and happiness, materials, equity, and beauty.
Digital tools including augmented reality (AR) and mobile virtual reality (VR) played a huge part in the design process for the child-centric, biophilic-inclined Ripley. By animating flat lines on a page, AR elevated Context’s 2D drawings into 3D models and gave the Mother Duck team a deeper understanding of their future space.
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