Our Education team spent the last 8 years seeing this project from concept to completion.
The Duigan Centre is fittingly named after John Robertson Duigan MC, a Brighton Grammar alumnus who designed and flew the first Australian-made aircraft. A replica of Duigan’s aircraft, ‘The Duigan Flyer’, is suspended in the 1882 Gallery acting as the embodiment of the school’s values and pioneering spirit. A key driver for the project was transparency and porosity – not only for students to learn from each other but to strengthen the school’s connections to the community.
We would like to acknowledge this project as one of the late Paulo Sampaio’s defining works and we thank Brighton Grammar for generously honouring his contribution by naming a link bridge within the facility after him. The centre’s lofty spaces, extensive sky lighting and material choices reflect Paulo’s remarkable ability to design inspiring spaces for teachers and students alike.
The building received a warm welcome on the night with one speaker noting that although buildings can’t teach, care or impart wisdom – they do provide the most conducive environment in which a school is able to do those things and, “The Duigan Centre is a facility like no other.”
The Duigan Centre will be a legacy project for our education team to celebrate their dear friend and mentor, Paulo, and for the school to shape the future lives of students. To learn more about the project see here.
