Santa Maria College Cultural Centre
Santa Maria College Cultural Centre
Client:
Santa Maria College
Location:
Perth, Western Australia
Status:
Completed 2026
Contact Person:
Edward Hicks
A new landmark building at Perth’s Santa Maria College is now the cultural heart of the campus.
Designed by Architectus, the world-class Cultural Centre offers all students a professional‑level theatre experience, whether they are performing or in the audience.
Purpose‑built for learning, creating, rehearsing and performing, the new Cultural Centre recognises that participation in the arts is critical to building students’ confidence, creative problem‑solving and leadership skills.
From school productions and music concerts to public speaking and assemblies, the venue gives students the opportunity to step onto the stage, find their voice in front of an audience and develop capabilities that will serve them far beyond their school years.
An immersive theatre environment
Built to meet the College’s current and future needs, the Cultural Centre has a 642-seat theatre. Professional-grade technical equipment supports a fully immersive theatre environment and gives students opportunities to learn industry skills.
Complementing the main theatre are multifunctional, interdisciplinary spaces comprising a dance studio with a fully sprung floor, a flexible 140-seat black box theatre, a green room that doubles as a classroom and back-of-house areas.
Each space has been thoughtfully designed for maximum flexibility as a setting for teaching and gathering.
The Cultural Centre will also be used for staff, parent and alumni events.
A building in sync with its surroundings
Set into the College’s steeply sloping grounds, the striking two-level building has a single-pitch roof and steps down the hill, creating a more modest profile to neighbouring homes on the south while offering a triple-height connection to existing buildings on the north.
Located behind the historic McAuley building, the new facility draws on the College’s village-like campus character for its design inspiration.
Sweeping colonnades of pumice-pigmented, precast concrete offer a nod to the existing verandahs and covered walkways while the two terracotta-toned theatre spaces in ribbed aluminium reference both the folds of a theatre curtain and surrounding terracotta roof tiles.
Enhanced by public art
Public art by Santa Maria College alumni Ellen Norrish is woven through the entrance spaces.
Drawing on the school’s archives and local stories, and developed in consultation with a First Nations representative, her hand‑drawn studies of historical and landscape objects have been translated into delicate etchings that trace their way along circulation routes and reveal elements of the College’s history over the decades.
First major building in the masterplan
The Cultural Centre is the first major building completed as part of a campus masterplan that introduces an east-west pedestrian axis along the southern edge of the site.
The project provided a unique opportunity to create both a landmark building and a more coherent campus.
Architectus won a design competition in 2021 to deliver this building that now proudly sets the tone for future College development.
*Photography by Nicholas Putrasia
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Client:
Santa Maria College
Location:
Perth, Western Australia
Status:
Completed 2026
Contact Person:
Edward Hicks
Key People
Edward Hicks
Associate
Perth
Registered Architect WA (3794)
Alana Knight
Associate
Melbourne
