Staff Area
Staff areas are critical for relaxation, private study, research, team meetings and mentoring. They form a central element in our building designs.
Architecture
Graham Mann of Project Works Design was responsible for designing Pennant Hills and Turramurra. The design brief was that the buildings were required to be functional, beautiful and ageless. Pennant Hills had to blend well with neighbouring Lilian Fraser Garden and the history of Bellamy Street. Turramurra was replacing a post WW2 Californinan Bungalow and therefore we were inspired by Spanish Mission architecture popular in New South Wales in the early 1900s.
Landscaping
Tess Michaels of Tessa Rose Playspace and Landscape Design has designed all our outdoor areas.
Beautiful natural play areas are central to a young child’s development as they encourage exploration, creativity, and physical activity. These spaces provide diverse sensory experiences and opportunities for imaginative play. We have vegetable patches, citrus trees and passionfruit vines. It takes many years for our natural play areas to mature. Some trees starting in 400mm pots are now starting to shade play areas in summer then shedding their autumn leaves to allow the warm sun to enter the gardens over winter. Many hours are spent maintaining our outdoor play areas to remain vibrant and interesting for both the children and our staff.
Trees
Often, developers are given two choices when confronted by trees that are close to a building envelope: 1) the tree will not survive construction and therefore the tree must be removed, or 2) the tree will not survive construction and therefore the Development Application must be rejected or modified.
Thankfully, in the development of Adventures Preschool Turramurra, we engaged one of Australia’s leading arborists, Mark Hartley.
Ku-ring-gai Council assessed two of our trees using the traditional approach and determined that the trees wouldn’t survive construction. However, Mark developed a revolutionary method of assessing tree survivability from root loss. He developed an allometric method for measuring root loss and used that to produce a ‘root loss calculator’ to estimate the percentage of roots that would be lost. Allometry is the study of how an organism’s size affects the proportions and functions of its parts. Mark then hand-dug exploratory trenches along the proposed excavation lines, exposing the roots that were likely to be cut.
Mark used the calculator to determine the volume of each tree above and below ground. Using the measurements from the exploratory trenches and the root loss calculator, he was able to estimate how much root mass would be removed as a proportion of the total root mass. The root loss for one tree was 9%, and the other was 6%.
Mark then used numerous sources to demonstrate that the loss of up to a third of a tree’s root mass is in the tolerability range for most healthy trees. The Land and Environment Court accepted Mark’s new technique. This method is now being adopted to assess root loss elsewhere in Australia and overseas. If you look at the Black Butt tree at the left side of the driveway and the cedar tree in the back right corner of the site, you will see both trees are thriving post-construction.
It turns out that Ku-ring-gai Council’s ultra-conservative approach was excessive and would have significantly impacted the project or resulted in the unnecessary loss of trees. We wanted both. Using this novel scientific approach to determine the potential impact of development on trees, along with proper tree protection, helped us do just that. The use of this new approach is now allowing trees to be successfully retained while helping to reduce urban sprawl. That is a great beginning for our childcare centre, our trees, and our community.