We’re proud to share that NextSense centre for innovation has been shortlisted for the 2025 NSW Architecture Awards in the Educational Architecture category.
NextSense is a leading not-for-profit provider of therapy, education and cochlear implant services for children and adults with vision or hearing loss.
NextSense provides a broad range of specialist services which include:
• Early Intervention;
• Allied Health & Therapy;
• Australia’s largest cochlear implant program;
• Onsite preschool and primary school education and school support in mainstream independent schools;
• A world-leading research and professional education program; and
• Paediatric audiology
The NextSense centre for innovation is a new purpose-built 1-3 storey building (including basement level) across two interconnected buildings at the corner of Culloden and Gymnasium Road and has become the new gateway to the Macquarie University Campus.
The development includes:
• Preschool and School accommodation for up to 80 preschool children and up to 120 school children in a single storey pavilion addressing Culloden Road;
• A central services building (accommodating approximately 260 staff) of up to three storeys, including basement level:
• Public areas for staff and visitors;
• Conferencing/Function facilities and a business hub;
• Therapy rooms for clinical services and acoustically treated audiometric testing booths with electromagnetic shielding.
The architectural response and programmatic relationships within the proposal for the new centre is designed to highlight the organisation’s position as a not-for-profit innovator partner and major contributor to the greater learning and research precinct.
The different functions of NextSense are seamlessly integrated into two interconnected buildings giving a physical manifestation of the fundamental aim and the premise of the project which is to form a networked environment for this multi-faceted organisation.
The two blocks are organised into smaller pavilions to break down the scale and the bulk of the development. The architectural language of the school is expressed through pitched roof forms and bagged brick facades in response to the residential character of the university village to the northwest and sits within the protective canopy of the existing landscape, while the elongated sweeping linear forms of the central services building with the cantilevered roof, acknowledge the institutional character of the University Campus to the south-east.
A solid base connects all the individual pavilions into one sinuous form, which steps up and down with the natural ground, sometimes appearing as sculpted corner, while other times dissolving behind planted edges and landscape terraces. Mediating the topography of the site, it unifies the two blocks physically, visually, and materially.
The pavilions are arranged around a series of courtyards. Within the School not only does every classroom have a direct access to an open area, in most cases they have been designed as if they are rooms within a garden, where one could either easily cross from one open space to another or have a visual link to the spaces. The same strategy has been applied to the central services building where the internal walls and spaces are configured to provide views out to the site, and in framing those views to reinforce the connection between people and landscape.
We’re honoured to be recognised alongside so many outstanding projects shaping the future of our built environment. Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 20 June at ILUMINA Sydney.
