A Visionary Blueprint for 21 st Century Schools
Exemplar Designs for Learning Environments for the Future One of world s most ambitious attempts to modernize all a country s education buildings led to the Exemplar Designs for Schools. The UK Department of Education wanted to create schools that would be fit for purpose until 2070 by creating exemplar designs and sharing them across the nation. Overall these designs must be a major contribution to radically improving educational opportunities. David Miliband, MP, Education Minister. The department s national challenge to the design community was to create visionary school building plans that would serve as advanced starting points in the design process for others. The designs had to provide attractive, imaginative and stimulating environments that would deliver excellent value for money. They were not intended to be templates, but to act as springboards for developing imaginative and sustainable school buildings, tailored to the needs and aspirations of others. Eleven design teams were appointed, thousands of people were involved in a two-year process, and designs were assessed by the UK s leading experts. Only one of these designs was researched and developed for 10 years into a full set of plans. It was used to deliver a building that met all the challenges. The blueprint is now ready to share with organizations building learning environments around the world. Our world is changing, and we have to prepare our children for a future that is difficult to predict. The Dura Mater ( strong mother ) blueprint took 10 years to create, and is ready to be shared, modified, and transformed to suit different needs. It is a robust shell protecting a space for learners, and fostering learning, health and well-being. It has proved remarkably successful in helping people learn. The first school built to the blueprint demonstrated the Dura Mater approach was more efficient than approaches used in comparable new schools. It won many awards, notably the 2010 national award for best value project in any industry. Delivered in just a year, on time and on budget, it now offers a tried and tested solution from concept to delivery a no risk, visionary future. Organizations building new schools using the blueprint will save time, money and delays because of the high level of detailed design in the Dura Mater blueprint. It is not a template- it has greater flexibility than other school designs, allowing many different sizes, layouts, extensions, configurations and room shapes. It offers robust starting points- easily modified to meet new demands in the future. Dura Mater is emphatically not a system of corridors to boxes, but a place; spatially grand but with quiet sub-places that people can make their own and where they can meet, talk and work. Above all it uses simple, practical and cost- effective solutions. So open-plan technology areas set classrooms free of fixed equipment, and let independent learning thrive. The large volume enclosure concept offers a valuable loose-fit principal which is liberating. The elliptical plan form used provides a very economical perimeter to area ratio. The inherent adaptability of floor deck space can let users create desirable spaces that enlighten, stimulate, and inform, in contrast to the institutional qualities that many people, both inside and outside education, associate with schools. Dura Mater is not a company, it is a concept, created, tested and shared to improve education and school buildings. Dura Mater is a highly detailed set of plans with solutions and options.
Realizing the Vision An exemplary all-around approach to improving learning, health and well-being. Sanjin Kaharevic Visionary Connected Efficient The building is also highly efficient: it was completed in a year, on time, and on budget. It won regional and national awards for innovation and, perhaps more significantly, for the best value construction project of any kind in 2010 (Constructing Excellence in the Build Environment). The inspired use of panel construction of a seeming elliptical shape combined with a reduced the surface area (two and half times smaller than traditional buildings) creates a striking domed appearance. It was such an efficient project because of the meticulous planning, so that no structural variation, or changes were needed changing during construction. No one can predict the future. What we do know is education will change, and so will learning spaces. The Dura Mater is a striking assertion that the 21st Century learning environment will not be the same. The design of the building has started from first principles, looking to maximise learning. In doing so it has drawn on material sciences, efficient construction processes, new materials and neuroscience. It has drawn on research from some of the world s great universities. Above all, this visionary solution was built to optimize the environment for learners. Every room allows its occupants to look out, usually to the grounds of the building and beyond. The elliptical design and open spaces allows everybody to see everybody else most of the time, providing visual connectivity and passive surveillance through open plan circulation. From the rooms there are panoramic views with wraparound 250m continuous ribbon windows. Many of the staff work in open plan areas by choice, though there are small, more private areas. Breathing On the roof are wind-catchers, a 4,000 year old solution to ventilation brought up to date by Cambridge University, and delivered by one of their spin-off companies. Vents in the roof draw down fresher, less polluted air as required. This passive ventilation system improves fresh air circulation, attention levels and problems of noise. It reduces potential infection associated with air conditioning. Classrooms and open areas are electronically monitored for temperature and CO 2 levels, and adjusted individually in real time. All the air in the building can be changed overnight, eliminating the institutional smells typical of education buildings. Natural The aim was to create a blueprint that did not impose itself upon the environment. The footprint of the building is very small. The curvature of the roof and walls gives an organic shape that gives the illusion of being smaller when seen from the outside, yet larger when seen from the inside. The building is aligned through computer modelling with the path of the sun, and the brie solei adjusted for optimal performance throughout the year.
Light Light floods the building. Drawing on research in neuroscience by Oxford University on the importance of the alerting effect of light. The interior spaces have an exceptional light quality. Natural light comes through roof lights that let 75% of the light into the space, dispersed by the nanogel panels that also insulate the building. Lights in the rooms are adjustable to ensure sufficiently high levels of light. The combination of natural air and high levels of natural light is intentional, giving the space a healthy, noninstitutional feel. Space Inside, the exceptional volume of space is apparent, and filled with natural light. The roof is supported on bow string trusses, the largest spanning 45 metres, creating striking internal spaces with fewer columns, although the whole building complies with UK national standards for educational buildings. The design stage was crucial to rationalize individual fabrication parts to maximize repetition, and to develop cost-effective approaches to a roof curving in two directions. The blueprint was created so that it could be varied in different locations and purposes. Impact In the first year in the building, the learners improved their performance in every measure. The learners moved the institution from a national ranking of 75th percentile to 25th- in effect rising above half the institutions in the country in a single year. Less well-off students improved more than others. Many visitors commented on the good feel of the building and relationships within it, a positive response to the environment taken as a whole, and an indication that the human environment had benefited from the change in the built environment. Radically Improving Education Outstanding sound absorption creates an extraordinarily calm atmosphere in which an English lesson takes place in an open plan gallery area while a game of basketball takes place in the gym below. Scottish Government Sound A number of ingenious, moneysaving solutions made the building s acoustic qualities excellent. Rooms are not rectangular, with many different configurations used. Roof areas are not concealed but open, increasing each room s volume and acoustical baffles are used to improve acoustics in all areas. The building itself in not rectangular and the volume of each space within it is maximised. Taken together, these changes make the building quieter, and this is enhanced by operational routines that encourage quiet. Some of the money saved by this approach was reinvested into higher quality doors, and this had additional benefits. The new building, codesigned with substantial input from students and staff, is a terrific blend of open plan, open access computing and classrooms. Scottish Government
CONTACT Dr Paul Kelley CEO, Science + Technology in Learning Paul.Kelley@STIL.onmicrosoft. com @DrPaulKelley +44 (0) 7590 453 812 Paul Kelley, educational innovator and charismatic American headteacher (The Times) led an inspiring examples of system transformation [taking] an underperforming comprehensive school into a cutting-edge high school that is attracting interest internationally (Scottish Government) Ian Lancastle-Smith BA (Hons) Dip Arch RIBA Consultant, Sadler Brown Architecture ian.lancastle-smith@sadlerbrown. co.uk www.sadlerbrown.co.uk +44 (0) 191 261 6795 An award winning Architect and, advisor to Authorities and Local Government Departments providing intelligent, innovative, sustainable and cost effective designed solutions in all education sectors. Ian led the design team to provide a 21 st Learning Environment in response to the Learning Skills Councils challenge to deliver world class building environments for world class learning (Karen Wade, City of Sunderland College) If required, the architect, Ian Lancastle-Smith, and educator, Paul Kelley, can offer further support in taking advantage of the many options that are possible.