Building Confidence in Thomas Hassall School

Thomas Hassall Anglican College is a prestigious private education institution in Sydney, particularly noted for its unique building stock. The school was built in 2000 with modern materials and design practices, and has been gradually expanding its facilities. This year it completed a woodworking, metal craft and technical studies wing.

The new wing needed to be built with cutting edge materials that would be tough enough to withstand the normal wear and tear of a school environment, with the additional resilience required for a technical environment with lots of high impact zones. There were doubts about using materials like fibre cement. In consultation with the builder, the architect Frank Paterson of Stanton Dahl specified Powerscape Confidence.

Powerscape Confidence is a gypsum fibre internal wall lining with the impact toughness of masonry and the convenience of plasterboard. It is available as both “Utility” and “Ulta-Mesh”.

Utility is at least as strong as 9mm fibre cement and scrim reinforced plasterboard, and has twice the strength of same thickness regular plasterboard. “The one we chose was the ‘Ultra-Mesh’ version of Powerscape Confidence,” Paterson said, “which is the one with the mesh running through it for extra strength.” ‘Ultra-Mesh’ has over four times the soft and hard body impact resistance of same thickness regular plasterboard. Both products are available in 13mm and 16mm.

According to builder Glyn Hubbard of JM Coyle + Company, “This is the first time we’d used it, or even heard of it. The Powerscape team were really good, they came on-site a few times and gave technical support and demonstrations to the guys who were installing it.” Hubbard said he found Powerscape to be easy to handle on site, and a lot easier than fibre cement to cut. Powerscape can be cut to size virtually dust free using multi-score and snap, or hand tools and powered wood working tools can be used when using a dust mask.

It nails, screws, glues and staples easily, and joins smoothly needing only infrequent expansion joints. Paterson specified 13mm thickness so it transitioned seamlessly with the 13mm existing linings. The surface is an excellent substrate for paint and tiles, and the result for Thomas Hassall is a very functional and attractive working space.

Thomas Hassall Anglican College has made a name for itself by taking a new line on quality education; but their growing reputation has not been founded on the quality of their education alone. Education is as much about the curriculum as it is about the environment in which it is delivered. In this case Powerscape Confidence scores very high grades indeed.