Coburg Special Development School provides a supportive and nurturing environment that promotes learning, personal growth, and well-being for students with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities, sensory and physical impairments, and autism spectrum disorder. Moving from their previous location the school required a new purpose-built campus for nearly 100 students ranging from Prep to Year 12. It is organised into Early Years, Middle Years, and Senior Years sub-schools. Each sub-school forms a distinct Learning Neighbourhood, tailored to its unique location within the building and providing a sense of progression as students advance through their education.

The concept of a learning neighbourhood is expanded to create a larger village-like environment, where each neighbourhood and specialist area stands out as an individual entity within the whole. This approach breaks down the scale of the larger building, providing a distinct visual identity to each neighbourhood from both the interior and exterior.

Specialist spaces are purposefully designed to offer students rich sensory experiences beyond their classroom environment, enhancing their learning and functional independence. The building’s design is driven by the need to establish a strong, direct connection between indoor and outdoor learning environments. This is crucial for students requiring diverse settings for self-regulation, and it ensures that the larger student body has sufficient outdoor space for inclusive break times within the relatively compact site.