EduStack reimagines a redundant 1970s office tower at 133–141 Liverpool Street, Sydney, as a vertical K–12 school that reconnects children, city and nature in the heart of the CBD. The project began with a simple question: as cities grow denser and school sites become scarcer, how can vertical education become more child-centred, socially connected and ecologically responsive?

Rather than demolishing the existing building, the design upcycles its concrete frame and retains 73.2 per cent of the existing floor area. The podium opens to the underground pedestrian network, the basement is reimagined as a sunken forest extending Hyde Park’s landscape logic and stepped terraces bring daylight, greenery and social life deep into the tower. Prefabricated modular classrooms are inserted within the reused structure, balancing efficiency with child-scaled spaces and allowing the building to adapt over time. Beyond its life as a school, the modules can be disassembled and reassembled as 135-square-metre homes or holiday cabins, extending material life and reducing waste.

EduStack proposes more than a school conversion. It proposes an urban model in which adaptive reuse, public space and education work together, turning an ageing commercial tower into low-carbon civic infrastructure for the future.