A modest suburban school in Chippendale, Sydney, has been awarded the prestigious World Building of the Year 2024, surpassing more than 220 designs from around the world, including high-rise towers, museums, and airport terminals, at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore.
Opened last fall, Darlington Public School’s new campus combines an angular brick structure with a distinctive “sawtooth” roof and landscaped outdoor spaces, including a basketball court and a community garden. Metal screens around open-air terraces allow natural light in while ensuring student privacy. Designed by Sydney-based fjcstudio, the project sought to preserve the essence of the original 1970s campus while providing contemporary learning environments.
The campus, which houses preschool, kindergarten, and primary school facilities, can accommodate over 500 students. The design respects Aboriginal heritage by incorporating indigenous art throughout, reproducing Aboriginal murals from the original school’s walls into the new building’s cladding.
Alessandro Rossi of fjcstudio expressed pride in the school’s recognition, attributing the achievement to the client and community engagement that shaped the project. “The real winners are the children who will spend time in the building,” he said.
This year’s award continues a recent trend of educational buildings winning the top prize, as Darlington Public School follows last year’s winner, a boarding school in China, and Sydney’s Quay Quarter Tower, a previous winner celebrated as the world’s first “upcycled” skyscraper.