Why this small Sydney school was just crowned the world’s best new building

Jarrod Brown
By Jarrod Brown
4 Min Read

In an unexpected turn, a modest Aussie school has beaten out hundreds of iconic architecture giants across the globe to be crowned the ‘World Building of the Year’. 

Darlington Public School, tucked in the quiet Sydney suburb of Chippendale, took on over 220 shortlisted entries of some of the world’s best architecture projects to snag the top prize at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Singapore on Friday.

Despite some stiff competition, including the spaceship-like National Star Observatory of Cyprus and an impressive solar power plant in Turkey, judges said that Darlington’s unique design – helmed by the Sydney-based firm fjcstudio – captured the hearts of voters and audience members alike.

Opened earlier this year to students, the project wowed festival goers with a “striking” angular brick campus building, featuring a distinctive “sawtooth” roof, with landscaped outdoor spaces, including a large basketball court and a community garden inclosed by softy curved metal screens for protecting students privacy. 

‘Sawtooth roof’ of Darlington Public School (WAF)

The Sydney site had long been home to a school, but with the original building starting to show its age, fjcstudio said the school was ‘no longer fit for purpose’.

Now housing a preschool, kindergarten and primary school, the new campus will be able to accommodate more than 500 students, according to the school’s website, with a two-stage building process meaning classes were able to continue throughout construction.

Little school, big heart

But the idea behind the redesign wasn’t intended to wow judges or bring in awards. According to the fjcstudio, this “radical transformation” was instead envisioned to offer students and faculty a “new and contemporary learning environment” while honouring the area’s storied indigenous heritage.  

The design firm said they helped preserve this “strong connection to Aboriginal people” by putting Indigenous art in the school hall, entrance reception and classrooms, and even including some of the old building’s original artwork into the new cladding. 

Speaking after Friday’s announcement, Alessandro Rossi, an associate at fjcstudio, said: “It’s very humbling given the modest scale of the building — it’s a little school project, so to have won against all the other big projects at WAF is a testament to the client and the community engagement that helped drive the design process.”

“The real winners are the children who will spend time in the building — a place of enrichment for many years to come.”

The World Building of the Year was selected from the 18 winners across the awards categories, spanning sport, transportation, health and housing. as chosen by a panel of 175 festival delegates. 

Friday’s result also marks the second time a Sydney building has won the award in the past three years, after Quay Quarter Tower — dubbed the world’s first “upcycled” skyscraper for retaining two-thirds of an old high-rise on the site — won in 2022.

Other recent winners include a housing complex for senior citizens in Singapore and a waste-to-energy power plant with a rooftop ski slope in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Jarrod Brown combines his background in journalism, copywriting and digital marketing with a lifelong passion for storytelling. He has a strong passion for new and emerging consumer technology within the building sector. He lives on the Sunshine Coast - usually found glued to the deck of a surfboard.