Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College

Overview

Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College is one of Australia’s most distinguished girls’ schools, with a campus in North Sydney that has seen significant investment in its built environment over a number of years. Three separate Corian® applications across the college — science laboratories, student bathrooms, and a landmark landscape architecture commission — demonstrate how a single material can answer fundamentally different design and performance briefs across a single campus.

The Brief

Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College required Corian® Solid Surface across three distinct campus applications — each presenting a different design and performance challenge. In the science laboratories, the brief called for benchtop and sink surfaces capable of withstanding daily chemical exposure while maintaining a hygienic, seamless finish. In the student bathrooms, the requirement was for integrated washplane and basin forms that would reduce maintenance demands and deliver a premium amenity environment for high-traffic student use. At the Performing Arts Centre entry, the challenge was structural as much as aesthetic — a series of retaining walls up to 3000mm in height required a cladding solution that could also function as the balustrade, reduce footing requirements, and hold a premium finish in an exposed outdoor setting.

Material Specification

Corian® was specified across all three applications at Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College in three colours: Glacier White (bathrooms and landscape), White Jasmine (laboratory benchtops and sinks), and Concrete (laboratory benchtops and sinks, and outdoor student amenity benchtops and sinks).

Design Outcome

Scientia Terrace — Science Laboratories

Scientia Terrace is a six-level facility housing eleven Science, Sports Science, and PDHPE laboratories, a super laboratory with a Scientist in Residence, and flexible learning spaces designed for hands-on, industry-focused learning. Corian® Solid Surface benchtops and custom lab sinks were specified throughout the laboratory environments in two colours — White Jasmine and Concrete — with each indoor lab sink fabricated to match its benchtop colour precisely. Matching Corian® lids were supplied for each indoor sink opening, creating a seamless, fully integrated bench surface. Corian® sinks were selected over metal alternatives due to their resistance to chemical corrosion, with plastic waste fittings specified for the same reason. Concrete Corian® benchtops with inset Glacier White Corian® sinks extend the specification into the adjacent outdoor student amenity area. The non-porous, repairable surface ensures that benchtops and sinks can be renewed in place should chemical or impact damage occur which is a significant practical advantage in an active school science environment.

Bathroom Facilities Upgrade — Australia’s Best Bathroom 2018

The student bathroom upgrade at Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College won Australia’s Best Bathroom at Total Facilities 2018 — a competition that evaluates design, innovation, aesthetics, and wellbeing outcomes. Designed by Gran Associates Australia and built by Blue Group Projects, the bathrooms replaced a conventional student amenities block with something far more considered. Corian® washplanes and basins were manufactured as seamless, integrated units — surfaces flowing directly into wall and basin without visible joins, reducing the maintenance demands of grout lines and joins. The result is a space that functions as efficiently as it looks, with the clean lines and easy-care surface that high-traffic student facilities demand.

Performing Arts Centre Entry — Landscape Architecture

For the entry to the subterranean Performing Arts Centre designed by Brewster Hjorth Architects, Arcadia Landscape Architecture faced a structural and aesthetic challenge: a series of retaining walls reaching 3000mm in height, required to provide access from street level to building entry, without the walls feeling oppressive or institutional. Off-form concrete was ruled out — too difficult to achieve a premium finish at this scale. Arcadia’s breakthrough came when Corian® was identified as a material that could serve as both the cladding and the structural balustrade itself, reducing the required height of the retaining wall, shrinking the footing requirement, and generating significant budget savings across the project.

Working with fabricator FCI (Frilingos Commercial Interiors) and structural engineer Northrop, the walls were thermoformed at their corners — drawing on Corian®’s malleability to create flowing, sculptural forms that contrast with the heritage Chapel behind. Vertical LED accent lighting strips were integrated into the expansion joins between panels. The same jig profile was used to thermoform seating elements throughout the entry precinct, creating unity across all landscape furniture elements. The non-porous surface addressed concerns about external durability, colour stability, and the ability to repair any damage from vandalism without full panel replacement.

Why It Works for Similar Projects

Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College demonstrates Corian®’s range within a single education client — laboratory precision, high-traffic hygiene, and large-scale architectural expression all resolved with the same material.

For architects and designers working in the education sector, this project illustrates several specification advantages:

• Science laboratories: Non-porous, chemical-resistant, seamlessly joined benchtops that can be renewed in place — a significant lifecycle advantage for education environments where surfaces face daily exposure from student experiments.
• Student amenities: Integrated washplane and basin forms reduce the maintenance demands of grout lines and joins. Corian® is equally effective in high-humidity, high-traffic environments where cleaning efficiency directly affects hygiene outcomes.
• Landscape and architectural elements: Thermoformability allows Corian® to take on structural and decorative roles that no other surfacing material can. The Monte landscape commission is among the most ambitious outdoor applications of Corian® documented in Australia.

Specifying Corian® in your next education project? The Corian® Design Certainty Service gives you complimentary shop drawings, renders, and fabrication-ready documentation. Send us your plans — we’ll help you create a solution.

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