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Sophie Haynes
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Before the design will work the design research and consultation must work!
Design consultation will have a greater impact, by entering territory that has never been entered before, really getting under the skin of the users and ultimately finding out what will make their school a happy and healthy place to be!
A recent report claimed that more than a third of teachers feel the poor design of their school has a negative effect on their ability to teach.
The report was released in time for the National School Environments Week, which ran from 25-30 June. Almost 90 per cent of those who took part in the research said that classroom layout is the single most important factor in the school environment when it comes to teaching and learning. Only 60 per cent, however, said they were able to make adjustments to aid teaching.
The BCSE is calling on the Government to follow a list of recommendations aimed at establishing good practice in the design and build of schools.It says that a regular, large-scale survey of teachers and pupils to find out what can be done to improve the design of schools across the country will also help to get the future design of schools right. In addition, it is calling for the creation of a national databank containing information on designs that do and don’t work. Director of the BCSE, Ty Goddard, is calling on for the Government’s schools capital funding programme to reconsider the design and building process for schools.
‘The promise of billions of pounds to refurbish or rebuild schools is a fantastic opportunity – a real cause for celebration. But this new research shows the importance of getting the design and build process right, or we’ll end up with new schools that don’t work and fail our children, teachers and communities,’ he says.
Here is a concept for a future classroom!
Getting the design of the building right is one thing, however, the design will not be right until the consultation has been carefully ‘designed’ and carried out with the same thought and detail!
Design consultation will have a greater impact, by entering territory that has never been entered before, really getting under the skin of the users and ultimately finding out what will make their school a happy and healthy place to be! It stays away from the monotonous survey, tailoring it to a specific user group and making the whole experience fun and thorough and set to shape the future. We should be applying this to every form of design from web to building!
To read the full report on ‘Bad school design harms pupils’ see the link below.
The survey results can be found at:
Posted on 23/07/07 in
Comments
Sophie
Design of schools in the UK has, traditionally, and with a few venerable exceptions, been mediocre. This is indicative of our hypocritical attitude to children and youth - we are incredibly sentimental and saccharine about them, but we aren’t prepared to invest in their surroundings which give them the best start in life.
With the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme this is being slowly redressed - and the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment (CABE) are making a big effort to try and ensure the programme is design led. See:
http://www.cabe.org.uk/default.aspx?contentitemid=1993
But as is often the case with public buildings (see also hospitals) the number of talented and thoughtful architects that are involved with these projects is limited, although we know there are plenty of them to go around as we employ some of the best on our projects.
But because so many of these schemes are in the PFI (private finance initiative) mold, they tend to be designed in house by ‘architects’ who are in fact little more than ‘building design technicians’ employed by the big construction companies that go for these contracts. And of course their only purpose is to maximise their own profits (not that there is anything wrong with making a good living from your work, but squeezing every last drop of cash from the cow is not compatible with creating great places and spaces).
There are some exceptions though:
http://www.cabe.org.uk/search.aspx?type=1&filter=Education
26/07 at 01:44 from Alistair
