The King’s School – Various Projects

Few institutions in Australia carry the weight of tradition that The King’s School does. Since 1831, it has shaped generations of young Australians – and the buildings that surround that education matter as much as the education itself. Prime Projects was entrusted with five significant projects across the King’s School campus in Parramatta, delivering a $26 million programme of works alongside Mayoh Architects that spanned nearly a decade and transformed the way the school’s students live, learn and belong.

Four boarding houses were refurbished and reimagined: Broughton Forrest, Baker Hake, Waddy Macarthur, and Bishop Barker Harris – each delivered in stages, each aligned with a carefully developed Boarding Master Plan that sought to establish a new architectural identity for the Boarding Precinct distinct from, yet consistent with, the historic Senior School campus.

The architectural language was deliberate and considered with construction. Precast concrete panels, exposed brick walls, terracotta columns and hardwood – materials chosen to honour the campus aesthetic while signalling something new. Symmetrical compositions, hierarchical building volumes and a clear sense of entry and arrival. Tradition made contemporary. History made liveable.

Each boarding house was engineered to accommodate the realities of a sloping site, proximity to existing buildings, access roads and bushfire-prone land – constraints that demanded as much from Prime Projects’ civil and structural capability as from its construction craft. Broughton Forrest set the standard in 2013. The completion of Bishop Barker Harris raised it further still.

Alongside the boarding houses, Prime Projects delivered the Kurrle and Wickham Day Houses – purpose-designed home bases for day students, equipped with kitchenettes, common rooms, lockers and social spaces that mirror the warmth and function of their boarding counterparts. And the Dalleywater Centre at the Preparatory School added a two-storey Inquiry Learning Centre – a heavily glazed, flexible teaching hub overlooking the Doyle Playing Fields, built for the collaborative, student-centred learning that defines modern education.

Five projects. One prestigious school. Nearly a decade of trust placed in Prime Projects to get it right – every time.