(pre-illustration draft)

INTRODUCTION

Although a school is much more than the sum of its parts, careful attention to the design of the parts goes a long way toward building a successful school. This article examines the elements that make up a school, and some of the concepts that come into play when designing them.

CLASSROOM

Every school has basic spaces for instruction, and most successful school buildings use a repeating module of a standard classroom. This standard module may have variations and be customized at the middle school and high school levels for specific areas of instruction. However, the modular design, while seemingly constraining, allows a school to assign space with great flexibility. Do you need to teach more sections of language arts and fewer sections of social science? It's not a problem if you have a relatively standard classroom module that is designed to be effective for many subjects.

Because it is the site of most in-school learning, the classroom module deserves a great deal of attention during design. Here are some ways to ensure that a classroom will be carefully designed:

• Model it in a user workshop session (see Advanced User techniques)
  visit a wide variety of classrooms
  
• Survey faculty to identify classroom designs that work well, and identify the elements that are important to the success of these rooms.
  
• Survey faculty to identify classrooms problems to avoid.
  
• Consider mocking up one classroom and using it for instruction. This can be done within an existing space, or built as a student project.
  

Truths and Myths

Myth: "Flexible" classrooms with movable walls have advantages over conventional classrooms.
Truth: The experience of nearly all experiments with open classrooms and movable wall systems is that:

• They are not as flexible as advertised;
• They tend to be used in conventional ways, seldom flexed;
• The movable partitions have acoustical or mechanical problems, or both; and
• Fred's opinion: Other methods are available to provide for a variety of methods of instruction. Simply placing a connecting door between adacent rooms can foster interaction or support team-teaching approaches. Having a small number of spaces of an alternative size that can be scheduled flexibly is usually a more effective way of providing programmatic flexibility. For example, if a room is available that holds twice as many students, then it can be used for larger-group activities. Such a room might want to be tiered to allow for views of presenters and of other students. Conversely, if smaller spaces are available, group projects and cooperative learning have a place to occur.
  

Myth: Instruction is enhanced if distracting views of outdoors are eliminated.
Truth: The basis of this assertion is a single, very flawed study. More recent research demonstrates clearly that the opposite is true: windows and daylighting enhance learning as well as human performance in general.

Myth: Features and systems such as technology and instructional media are what make or break a classroom as an instructional space.
Truth: The most fundamental aspects relate to basic human performance:<<br>

• Can everyone see each other and hear each other?
• Are there windows? Yes, learning is enhanced by windows.
• Is the interior climate comfortable? See ____.
• Are there adequate ways to imprint and display, so that students and teachers can make the room feel like it is theirs and display what is important to their learning?

OFFICE

Central administrative offices

Many school designs get to the adminstrative offices as an afterthought, so it's no surprise that many of the complaints about schools stem from poor office facilities. Offices are best programmed with primary input from office staff, and here are some of the considerations that might affect their design:

• Prominence: Is the office reception area visible when approaching and entering the school by the main entrance?
• Welcoming reception: Is there a waiting area? Does the reception area provide information and cues to allow visitors to be self-guided, if appropriate? Does the reception area communicate what is important about the school?
  
• Natural supervision: Does the office provide staff with a clear view into the main corridors of the building and of key building entrances so that security can be provided easily?
  
• Layering of privacy: Does the office provide a gradient from a public reception area to private offices for the principal (and other administrators with private offices)?
  
• Separation of circulation: Is traffic and waiting related to disciplinary activities (which may be confrontational) separated from people visiting for other reasons?
  
• Flexibility over time: Is the office area designed to grow, if needed? Can functions be separated in the future?

Truths and Myths

Myth: Windows are distracting to office staff
Truth: Office worker productivity is enhanced by windows, and security can be enhanced greatly with views for supervision from offices.

Myth: Rigid standards exist for the number of square feet per office worker
Fred's opinion: Space per worker seems to be fairly flexible. If properly equipped with storage systems and work areas, and if conference rooms and break areas are available, small work areas appear to work within limits. Crowding should be assessed on the basis of adequate space for the objects and activities that are needed, not on a rigid square-foot-per-person basis. Acoustical privacy is often a more important consideration than space.

Faculty offices

For schools where teachers have free periods, such as high schools and middle schools, it is essential to provide them with a place to work. This might occur in a classroom, if they are permanently assigned a classroom. Alternatively, this might occur in a private office or a shared office space. Whatever the solution that you choose, it is essential that teachers be provide a space that has enough storage, work surface, and privacy for them to work effectively. In addition these work spaces can be combined in creative ways to foster interaction among the faculty and also to create areas of identity for students.

LIBRARY / MEDIA CENTER

CAFETERIA / COMMONS

GYMNASIUM

Physical Education Instruction

Performance

Community Use (including after-school use by students)

AUDITORIUM

CORRIDORS

These are the main arteries of a school. They are used much more than many architects realize, and the nature of the use is likely to change over time. Secondary schools sometimes want to use them as lounges, as small group study areas, and of course for storage with lockers. The functional and acoustical needs of these may be in conflict, and there can be fire code issues as well.

The visual qualities of corridors can also either emphasize the institutional character of the school (loud acoustics, long corridors, no daylight, linear lighting, unrelieved wall and ceiling planes) or can be made less institutional (softer acoustics, off-sets and corners, articulation of ceilings and walls to form rooms, pools of light and dark, daylight, etc.)

OUTDOORS

Aside from athletic fields, many architects and educators forget the importance of the outdoor environments on and near a school. Athletic fields are a fundamental part of the curricular and extra-curricular life of a school, and are not likely to be forgotten during the design process from site selection to detailed design. However, certain other uses should also be considered from the very beginning. Here are a few:

• Nearby nature: forests, swamps, prairies, and other natural features help the teaching of science and other disciplines. Having them on-site or nearby is a plus at all grade levels. However, make sure that adequate supervision and security can be provided.
  
  
• Garden: All grade levels can benefit from garden activities. Integrate garden with classroom, if possible, so that close connections and identity can be made. Consider providing security by placing gardens in interior courtyards if necessary.
  
  
• Outdoor lounge space: Secondary students crave outdoor places for lunches and free periods. When these are facing the adjacent neighborhood, brace yourself for complaints. Consider either some screening with low walls and hedges (but still provding supervision from inside the school) or develop the non-neighborhood sides of the school, perhaps toward athletic fields or within interior courtyards.

::::::::::::return to Fred Tepfer's home page:::::::: return to School Facilities Reading:::::::::::::::