Auburn High School Senior Centre earns a commendation in the 2025 Dulux Colour Awards
The Dulux Colour Awards are one of the longest-running architectural and design awards programs in Australasia. The Awards give recognition to the most inspired and transformative examples of colour use in the built environment, and are synonymous with excellence and innovation. This year’s winners, chosen from projects across Australia and New Zealand, were announced at the National Gallery of Victoria on 28 May.
The Auburn High School Senior Centre earned a Commendation in the Commercial Interior Public and Hospitality Section of the awards. The Centre was designed by WOWOWA Architecture who also specified the colours used.
In awarding this commendation, the panel of judges commented that high schools were once bland, predictably grey buildings with dull interiors and very little to distinguish one from another. In their opinion, the Senior Centre showed that those days are long gone.
Drawing inspiration from its natural setting, the design centres around the use of vibrant colour from the warmer part of the spectrum. Rather than single colours assigned to specific spaces, the palette is integrated across classrooms, labs, communal areas and transition spaces. Unpainted elements have been colour-matched to the paint finishes, enabling the interior to blend with the exterior. The result is ambient and uplifting – the antithesis of the typical high school of years gone by.