The best way to ensure an effective and sustainable redesign for your school is to take part in the process yourself, argues Richard Hurst.
In this country you have to go back to Victorian times to see a commitment to investment in school buildings at the present level. As a result, like the Victorians, we share a momentous opportunity to design, deliver and equip buildings that support a new vision for education, children’s services and our communities.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the rewards – if we get it right – will be huge: genuine transformations of education for our children, our economy, our society and our future. The challenge is: how do we successfully push forward this essential investment when, like so much of modern life, the future shape of education in the 21st century is so difficult to foresee with any clarity?
Essential to creating any effective modern learning environment are:
- high-quality design for teaching and learning
- user participation in the design process
- flexibility
- sustainability
- eficient procurement
- tested innovation.
Teaching and learning requirements are the heart of a school design brief because, as the needs of learners change, so the school design must respond. There is much talk today about 'personalised learning' – tailoring education to individual pupils’ needs, interests and aptitudes in order that every child reaches their full potential, regardless of their background and circumstances. Change dictates new spatial requirements, placing emphasis on lexibility, external spaces and technology – a diversity of spaces for a diversity of learning.