Prof. Frid Buhler

I

It is a great honour for me that especially Jaacov Hertz invited me to give this lecture on state-of-the-art design of high schools and this in a country in which educational theories and school design play such an important role in the social and political life.

By way of introduction, let me stress the fact that in the review of the last years a whole string of interesting schools recently built in Germany and mostly published beat= of their remarkable architectural quality can be found But these examples are choosers from a much smaller number of built schools than there were available during the decades before, because in Germany there is no increase of population any more and the need for new schools is satisfied to a large extent.

This causes a shortage of commissions for architects and means stress in competition_ Some 200 - 300 submissions in a design competition for one of the few jobs are not unusual. In this context the jury in which also a lot of politicians are involved, is not able to spend much time in discussion or) fundamental items. The "nice rendering" will often win and innovative ideas fall by the wayside.

It is evident that most examples of the past 2-3 years do not contribute to innovative programmatic solutions or educational visions: they are reduced to minimalized superficial aesthetics.

II

The modem school takes shape autonomously besides this formalistic discourse. It emerges from technical innovations social change and politics, the forces that cause the transformation of our society into the information society.

This process can be compared to the social transformation that took place a century ago. Leonardo Benevelo comments on the influence of the emerging industrial society of the 19th century on architecture: "while the architects argued in their studios wether they should design in gothic or baroque manner the modern city grew up without the influence of these professionals who have been the specialists for townscape ever before. We, the architects of the 1th century argue just as our predecessors in a very formalistic way while the information society grows up.

To speed up this process the European Commission has launched two action plans under the title learning in the information society" and "education and active citizenship". Both initiatives will provide schools with the necessary information and communication technologies, material equipment and teaching software. The German Ministery of Education and Sciences and Technology wants to encourage schools to integrate ICT in their instructional programmes. It started a three-year initiative to connect 10 000 schools to online information services. They will invest the amount of 200 million DM during the next 5 years.

III

In the following I will try to point out some effects of this evolution on design of schools:

- Schools are of utmost importance in this social transformation process. Educational and cultural spaces by this definition have a considerable urban potential, they are focal points of urban life and gain importance as key-investment with pilot function for private investment.

- The investment cost necessary to install such equipment in schools is very high. which ultimately leads to the necessity to use synergy effects with other public investment in this field.

By this schools are no more monofunctionalistic but become hybrid buildings who serve different needs and will he open to various groups of population.

- These multifunctional schools are no longer “Ivory Towers". They become focal points of urban life. There is a lot of interaction between the "world of learning" and the "waid of working and leasureTM. During lifetime phases of learning and education alternate with phases of application of knowledge without a sharp definition between the two. This means new educational systems such as evening classes as well as workshops for other users from the district. By Schools can contribute to'a balanced information society offering access to the new information and communication technology for all social groups.

- To achieve its new role the location of schools within the urban context has to change. They are no more situated in a quiet campus on the outskirts of the towns but in the heart of the city or a district. They are tools for city planning to create multifunctional urban environments, they can play a role that is comparable to the old Greece Agora or the Roman Forum.

- It is necessary to evaluate goals and programmatic correlations within schools in a new way. Change of goals in the field of education means mainly that social and political education, cultural responsibility and moulding of personality become more important beside teaching of knowledge. Ideas of the twenties in Germany are up to date again (Pestallozi, Kerschensteiner -"Reformpedagoik").

It is not enough to build new spaces for new technologies and add them to the existing layout .New contents must influence the whole curriculum and by this the organisation of spaces.

- A main task for the school of tomorrow will be to face the lack of socialisation of individualized young students. In this context spaces for group activities as sport and theater gain major importance.

- In the mobile society individuals break up their close ties with the place quite early in their youth. The response to this is to create distinctive places with strong patterns, that enable pupils to establish a stable relation. These patterns must be easily to remember for pupils and to remain open to individual interpretation at the same time.

The flexibility of the 60ties with its lack of distinctiveness can be no more a dominant goal.

- A principle of education is that physical activity must supplement concentrated activity in the classrooms which again is important at a time of increasing computerisation. The architectural respons is to link the above mentioned distinctive places together with carefully designed circulation spaces that offer orientation and supply series of stimulating spatial sequences. We can observe that examples of the fifties become important again.

- It is a challenge for educationalists and architects in the 21th century to outline visions for the New School of the information age. Design of educational and cultural spaces will be a main challenge of this coming society and its civilisation_ Investment in this held means investment in the future of an “Information Society for All".

This UlA working programme will he an international platform for this discussion.

John J. Castellana, FAIA

“What is best for the education of our teenagers, the life blood of every nation, as they are poised on the brink of adulthood?"

High Schools in America have taken on this challenge in new and exciting ways. The high schools of the last century have given way to a more personal approach that fosters interactive learning. The past included large schools that were akin to "factory" environments - students were just part of the assembly line. Their education consisted of separate tasks as they progressed through the "line" without any collaboration or^- interaction between tasks. Obviously, this method needed to change!

After years of brain research, high schools in America have attempted to change themselves to better serve the needs of our youth. It has not been an easy endeavor as the High School in America has been a powerful institution and change is very threatening Staff at schools become very powerful and are reluctant to alter their teaching styles because it involves new training and methods. Many would rather continue teaching the "assembly" line way and are very reticent to cooperate. The momentum is now here to force change to happen in a non-threatening manner.

According to an excellent publication - Breaking Ranks / Changing An American Institution - there are six new initiatives that should be considered in the design of a new High School:

Personalization

High Schools should be organized into smaller units or "houses" that serve no more than 600 students so that students and teachers can bond with each other.

Coherency

High Schools should be clear about the essentials that students must learn to graduate. Departments should be re-organized to permit and encourage collaboration and inter-disciplinary teaching to occur. Learning must make sense to students in terms of seeing connections to the real world.

Time

Teaching and learning need room for flexibility. High Schools should initiate block scheduling and abandon the traditional 55 minute period for all subjects.

Technology

High schools need to incorporate seamless technology systems as a tool to help enhance learning. The curriculum should be conveyed through technology and teaching strategies should employ technology wherever appropriate.

Professional Development

Educators cannot improve high schools without the proper preparation to take on new roles and responsibilities. They need to be re-trained in certain aspects of their profession and colleges and universities need to also change their methods to help prepare teachers for this changing style.

Leadership

Leadership in each high school must begin with the principal, but must include teachers, students, parents, school board members, the superintendent, and community residents who all contribute to making the school a better place.

Obviously, Personalization has a profound influence on how schools should be physically designed. There are exciting organizational concepts available to help satisfy this goal to help stimulate change. Of course, school designs must remain flexible to allow a variety of teaching and learning to occur without the building getting in the way!

Historical Perspective

High Schools in America are typically very large. It.is not unusual for schools to have populations of 2000 in four grades (9 thru 12),

Older schools were organized in very conventional ways with double loaded corridors and `wings" for department groupings. Departments were very separate and rarely did any interaction occur between disciplines,

If land was available, schools were spread out over enormous distances, many times on one floor level. This resulted in long anonymous corridors that were sterile and very impersonal. If expansion was necessary, wings at right angles were added that were hard to supervise and monitor.

New Opportunities!

Students need to feel like they belong, The older, impersonal environments did not offer enough intimacy to allow all students to excel. High Schools need to re-organize to meet the individual needs of students and to allow teachers to interface with them on a more one to one basis,

How do you personalize a high school for 2000 students? How can you get educators to interact arid collaborate with their peers? What should the new school for the 21st century look like?

Schools should be organized into schools within a school to counteract "bigness" common with American high schools. Research certainly reinforces that students perform better when placed in smaller environments where they are not isolated or alienated from their peers, schools and communities.

American architects have been exploring various options to answer these questions, Following are three recent high schools designed by the author's firm that exhibit distinct organizational layouts to satisfy this goal.

Pinckney High School

Organized into three, two level houses grouped around the Library / Media Center.

Each house is flexible with laboratories and general academic spaces incorporated. Special project rooms are included between general classrooms to allow more personalization to occur.

Each house includes an administrative center for faculty planning and counseling.

Houses are color-coded to reinforce their identity,

Specialized spaces for the Arts and Physical Education are located adjacent to the Student Commons space and have convenient access from the geographic center of the school.

Walled Lake Central High School

Organized into three, two level houses with room for expansion of a fourth house.

Houses are organized in a linear fashion along the major circulation spine, Central Avenue.

Each house is totally universal with spaces for all disciplines to promote interdisciplinary teaching.

Each house contains an administrative control center with space for faculty planning, assistant principal and counselors.

Houses are color-coded to reinforce their identity.

Specialized ^-spaces (remodeled from existing space) for Physical Education is located along a secondary circulation spine.

Specialized spaces for the Arts are part of the new construction and located adjacent to Central Avenue.

Anchor Bay High School

Organized into four, two level houses with the flexibility for houses to operate either horizontally or vertically.

Houses are grouped along a gently curved Student Commons area with excellent accessibility to all specialized spaces.

Library / Media Center is located at the second houses.

Each house contains an administrative center for counseling, assistant principal and faculty planning.

Observations and Conclusions

As can be seen. there are many diverse ways to organize high schools to be able to respond to cnteria that are important to a student's success.

Schools need to be flexible to adapt to dynamic teaching and learning styles,

Students achieve more success when their physical and emotional environment is more intimate,

Students achieve more success when their is a strong sense of belonging and more one on one interface with their teachers,

Teachers need to be more like coaches - nurturing their "athletes" and encouraging them to succeed.

The possibilities are endless. It is an exciting time for architects to play a very important role in helping to shape the High School for the 21st Century!

John J. Castellana, FAIA

Presented by: W. Jeff Floyd. Jr., FAIA

Sizemore Floyd Architects

Atlanta. Georgia. USA

INTRODUCTION

In 1999, Sizemore Floyd Architects, as part of its research for the creation of a new private school system, conducted a nation-wide survey of schools, including elementary. middle. high and mixed grades. The intent was to gather available information about the current approaches to school design. organization and academic delivery. It also contains a comparative analysis of key indicators such as enrollment and faculty, plus a summary of organizational patterns.

The presentation will outline the scope. methodology and key findings. It will also provide graphic information about the schools, comparative data, plus methods and contacts for architects to search for more information as appropriate to their needs.

Purpose

The purpose of the survey report was to convey an understanding of the quantitative and qualitative components of these schools. The level of analysis done may serve as a basis for identifying the overall needs of a K-12 complex, at a "master plan" level. Ultimately it can assist in setting the parameters for site testing and a master plan program.

Resources

This document contains information gathered from publications, the Internet, requests for

information placed to specific institutions and the Committee for Architecture for Education of the American Institute of Architects.

Contents

A. Typological Analysis summarizes the patterns found.

B. Case Studies illustrate data gathered for each school.

C. Appendix contains additional project data.

METHODOLOGY

The consulting team conducted a nationwide search for data on model facilities. The

research included a request for site, building, enrollment, faculty and program information. Facilities ranged in grades from K.12.

Once the information was in hand it was analyzed to establish:

A. Quantitative Data as follows:

- Student Enrollment

- Student to Faculty Ratio

- Building Area

- Building Area per Student

- Site Acreage

- Students per Acre Ratio

- Budget

- Cost per Student

B. Qualitative Data Typology as follows:

- Site Typology

- School/Community Relationship

- Overall Building Organization

- Detailed Organizational Relationship

The quantitative data from the case models was then combined to obtain averages for each school type elementary, middle, high, elementary-middle. middle-high and K-12 schools. The results are compiled into individual charts for each school type, with a final summary chart showing the combined averages for all the case studies.

The Place of High School In the Education and the School Architecture in Poland in the End of the XX Century

The political and social performances in the year 1989 found the Polish school in the model of the 70ties and 80ties. The centralization and the uniformity of the educational program lasted many years with just small, rather cosmetic changes. It included eight years of learning in the case of the primary school and four of the secondary one; earlier ­in the 60ties - correspondingly seven and four years. During a very short time in the middle of 70ties proportion was ten 'primary) to two (secondary)!

The localism of school building was obligatory, the distances between the home and the school were constant and regulated by norms. Each new estate had in its bounds the primary school, also the kindergarten. The state school was just the only form of education.

Between the year 1961 and 1981. also later in fact, school buildings could be realized just only on the base of type projects taken from catalogues. prepared by selected centralized state design offices, the same in various regions of the country. The other obligatory factor at that time was the prefabricated system of elements in the school buildings' realization. These two compact sphere of activities created by the anonymous , uniformed architecture for the education.

After the year 1989 the first attempts to change school's structures appeared. Some private and public schools began to work. First of them in Torun, in the north of Poland, has lasted until to day, however it is in not a rule: the big majority of schools are still in state administration. In the last ten years The school program obliged in the last ten years was just like this from before the changes. So there was no problem to place the educational contents in old school buildings. The faces of new school architecture changes rather in esthetics and technical aspects and one can say that it is easier to meet a interesting school architecture than a good school.

The centralization brought the temporary lack of the competent staff in school administration . The interruption in the rule of the state in education could not give the equivalent, fully qualified people in local authorities in so short time.

Discussions on the reform of the education have been lasted for nearly last two years and finally it works, from 1999. The essence of the reform was to pass from school of two degrees into three ones. The primary school lasts now six years. the secondary ­three years; between them appeared the equivalent of High School (USA, Israel), with three years of learning. As we see the performances of Polish school were going in last forty years to shorten the first degree with the tendency to extend the variety of learning's forms. Another aspect of the changes was to enlarge the meaning of the comprehensive knowledge in the contrary to technical one. It is impossible to discuss a problem in the first year of the new shape of the education. We have to wait.

For now, the problem of the school space is particularly inconvenient. There are some aspects of it: money and time art the essential. Local authority, the present administrator of the school has financial troubles with the means of payment for new buildings. The realization of them lasts too much and it needs much more time than usual. The other factor is the lack of the competent specialists with the knowledge on the school administration. There are the difficulties with the new school space programs.

It is quite new situation for architects, the school designers. They are just the competent people In a case of specialization in the projecting of the school buildings. There are rather not so numerous number of them and the time is also important in this aspect of the matter.

The essential aim in the creation of the new space for education is to adapt the existing school space for new needs. It is now not too good for the primary school and also for the secondary ones. It is often the difficult task for the architect. Usually it is much more easier to place one school in the existing budding - generally one of two first degrees - rather than both of them. Then there is the problem with the gymnasium and the space for preparing and eating meals - kitchen and dining room. This is usually the conflict between the integration and the separation aspects of the school life.

We believe it is the problem of the nearest years.

One can observe the problem of the adaptation of the existing school building to the new aims on the example of the school in Przyszowice, Silesia. In the year 1997 1 have made the project of previously designed by me the conception of the existing primary school extension . The expected reform of the education has stopped the realization and it was necessary to do the new project For both schools: the six years primary school and the three years high school, The enlarged program had to be realized in the same, strictly limited. relatively small place. The necessity of the separation of these two units was difficult to perform. The alternative project arose in the year 1999. It is partly realized, the part of it is waiting for final realization.

David Nofar, Architect.

PART I INTRODUCTION

In this age, the pedagogic world has made great advances in educational approaches. ln parallel, these advances must be reflected in architectural thought and design.

The architectural design of schools is influenced by the spirit of ^-Architecture as Space" - that is to say, the meaning. the context, the concepts, the symbols. and the different approaches.

The architectural profession is involved in the search for a direction that takes care of

• the context.

• the connection between form and meaning.

• between reason and effect.

• and between pedagogic brief and physical shell

The process of translating the new pedagogic approaches brings about interesting new architectural forms. The result of which has been a renewal and regeneration in the field of architectural design of schools.

. The High School is different to the Elementary School. and has undergone numerous transformations in its bne1 changes in the pedagogic thinking, advances in technology, and as a result, also changes in the actual "packaging”.

PART 11 -THE ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT

Our projects reflect a variety of sources, drawn from the collective architectural memory. The images shown are all buildings and sites, that we have visited_ Our work is as such informed, not only by the tradition of building, but also the stylistic and structural advances of recent years.

Stonehenge - an early example of post-and-lintel construction. allowing the possibility of a variety of functions

The Pyramids - a monolithic structure housing a single function

Fuller at Expo '67 - a supershed housing a variety of activities within a single structure

Frei Otto, Munich Olympic Stadium - the analogy of the tent covering a single activity

Temple. China

School, Nablus - an example of a simple linear school

Plug-In - Kurokowa building had a fixed core for all public and shared facilities, whilst the private facilities were plugged-in and could theoretically be changed at will_

Safdie - Habitat, ill. piling of cube upon cube.

FutureScope - a futuristic use of geometry

Gehry, Bilbao - computer mapping has allowed for the building of the most complex flowing forms.

Gehry, Fred and Ginger, Prague - & Bilbao

Tschumi Parr de la Villette is an exploration of going beyond the cube, both literally and figuratively.

Liebeskind - The Jewish Museum is a building that is about voids and emptiness.

Hecker - The Jewish School in Berlin. is one of the most daring experiments in geometry in recent educational work.

Hertzberger - Here the interior, was of the greatest importance. Cellular offices were changed to open-plan offices. that were open to a central pedestrian street.

The Chapel. Dallas - This building by Philip Johnson is a small and perfect container for a single function.

School, China - An another example of a linear school

School, in Ticino - Mario Botta

PART III - PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

The school is no longer seen simply as a monolithic entity. but rather as a microcosm of the world, where there are a variety of space types, appropriate to a variety of functions.

A leitmotif of the work of our office has been the notion of the "mini-campus", where the 'core', housing the administration and all shared and common facilities, stands as an independent building. The classroom clusters are housed in free-standing teaching blocks or pavilions.

All of these functions are linked by circulation routes. These are not simply straight corridors but are rather spaces for social interaction, that reinforce the sense of community that is so important in school design. Thus, all the pavilions, or classroom clusters arc provided with a multi-functional space. This space can serve both as a meeting place for all the children of a particular age group, but can also be used for activities such as computer work, small seminars, or just quiet corners for students to study on their own or in pairs,

An example of this campus-type school is the high school at Dror, which is organised on the basis of "Teaching Centers". Thus, pupils of all ages study at these "Teaching Centers". The children move from faculty to faculty during the day according to which subjects they are studying. This system is. in fact, far closer to the university organization than that of a high school. This example, which was developed by Betty Politi, is still the only one of its kind in the world.

A similar system is that of "Professional Centers", where the classrooms are larger and extremely well-equipped, and designed specifically to suit each function.

Our office has also been involved in the design of buildings that are part of the greater educational picture. These buildings form an integral part of the high school campus. and provide services and facilities for students from other schools in the area. Examples include:

• a prototypical Science and Art Centre,

• the lottery-funded "Tapochet Pais" (National Science arid Art Centres),

• the Ya'akov Agam Museum and Fine Art Centre in Rishon LeZion, which has a nationwide appeal. and attached to which is an Art School.

• the "Bet Midrash", a multi-functional hall for religious high schools.

• the National Inter-active Educational Centre at Emek

PART IV - CASE STUDIES

1. Neve Ze'ev High School. Beersheva.

This is a comprehensive school of 36 classrooms.

Two main axes lead to the Junior high and the Senior high school. The curved corridor that links the two encompasses the administration, the library and the science laboratories.

These axes, which are covered and air-conditioned give access to the classroom clusters. Each cluster encompasses one standard or age group. The cluster is made up of three levels, and include a small internal amphitheatre in the central volume, which also has computer capacities and work areas.

The building is a pre-fabricated structure

2. Kiryat Shemona

The high school and the middle school are joined together by a central building that houses a shared entrance, the administration, laboratones, work shops. and the library.

Within this circular building is the "circulation spiral". which enables the visitor to Ihe adjacent look-out point to pass through the school at a public level which is separate from the school_ The safety rooms are buried deep in the section behind the building_

Shiktria School — Rishon Le-Zion

This school is situated in a new suburb of Rishon LeZion.

Beersheva – Ramot

This is a 42-classroom made up of three clusters of 14 classrooms each of prefabricated construction. Each cluster is connected to the core by radial axes. The core includes the administration, the library and ancillary accommodation, The major axis leads to the Sports hail and to the laboratories, workshops. and auditorium.

Adjacent to the main entrance is an open-air amphitheatre that can seat all the students.

5. Dror School, Lev HaSharon

This is an educational campus based on entirely new principles. The brief was developed by Betty Politi. The approach is based on the notion of "teaching centres", that are defined by specific subjects. The students move between these teaching centres" during the course of the school day. Each "teaching centre" includes a series of classrooms and rooms of different sites. The size and type of these spaces vary.

from subject to subject, and as such the geography centres spaces are very different spaces to that of language or art.

The High School consists of six "Teaching Centres". each of which consists of three pavilions or "houses." Each pavilion has a series of classrooms and teaching spaces, ancillary facilities, and a central space. which is large enough to scat all the students of a particular age group.

At the centre of the campus is the Central Building. which houses the administration, laboratories, the workshops and the library.

The campus is situated on a large 117.5 acres) rural site:and serves all the

neighbouring towns and villages. The school is designed as an integral part of the local community, in addition to the communal administration facilities that are situated at the entrance to the campus. many of the school facilities are shared with the community.

6. Reali Gymnasium, Rishon Le Zion.

The Reali Gymnasium is an existing school of 42 classrooms, The brief was to replace, in stages, the old building with a new one. The site is a relatively small one in the midst of quite a dense urban context.

The design approach was to create a strong and powerful building, one that was different and would rise above the mundaneness of its context. As such, the individual classroom blocks are placed at angles to each other, The elements of the school are all connected by a series of internal connections, In the next stage of design there will be a bridge above the road to link the school to the sports area_

Each pavilion has 14 classrooms- The upper floor houses the laboratories and the workshops- The facades of the building arc of a series of different colours and materials, The top floor is clad in aluminum. whilst the rest of the building is faced in cut stone.

7. School. Ashkelon.

Adjacent to the College is a school which consists of 20 classrooms, the administration, the library and an auditorium. The layout of building is radial, and future additions will fill in the empty spaces around the central core building.

8. Holon Herzog School

This High school is divided into three pavilions, each of which houses 10 classrooms

on three floors- The classrooms are all of different sizes with the possibility to join them together, Each floor has a number of associated staff rooms_ All three floors

are open to the central space ^by means of galleries.

The central street is double-storey. The top level houses the laboratories which are

linked to the classroom sections.

The building is pre-fabricated,

9. Bet Shemesh.

This is a 36 classroom comprehensive school, which is presently under construction.

The design is based on diverging linear two axes coming out of the apex, that is the entrance and administration. Each axis includes three age groups, each of which is double-storey. The internal street passes through the entire school. The workshops and the laboratories are concentrated between the two routes.

10. College, Ashkelon.

This is a technical college within which is the administration and a number of classroom buildings. The building is clad in a yellow Karkur stone

The planning of the College is based on the notion of internal streets flanked by buildings with colonnade, which run the length of the buildings.

11. High School, Bat Yam

This is an existing comprehensive high school. The brief called for the addition of a new wing to this existing school.

The central core houses all the public and shared facilities, that is the administration. the library, and staff rooms. Around this core are three pavilions. two of which house age group dusters, whilst the third pavilion houses the science laboratories and house workshops.

The form of the building free-flowing. The classrooms are also divided between those of the ordered base of the building and those of the disordered and free-form upper part of the building.

12. The Herodium, Gush Etzion.

The design of this school was based on the archaeological site of Herodium which is a circular fortress with towers at the corners. In the school design, these corners have been used as common spaces for all age groups. This is in addition to the safety rooms, and the staff rooms, which are adjacent to each age group's classrooms.

13. Kiryat Ono/ Kfar Vradim

The organisational principle of these schools is that of clusters of class rooms arranged around a resource centre. that includes a library and a labonatory. The principles of the design were defined by Betty Politi,

The limits of the resource centre, which is at the very centre of the cluster, is defined by a glass wall, which can be screened by blinds.

The classrooms are of different sizes and can be joined together or divided to create a variety of spaces. At Kfar Vradim, the first clusters are presently under construction,

By Rodolfo Almeida and Jadille Baza.

1. We are working for this project as Technical Co-ordinators, Jadille Baza for the
Ministry of Education, Rodolfo Almeida for UNESCO's Regional Office, since 1997, This presentation is a follow-up of the one we did at Cranbrook.

2. As from 1990. the Ministry of Education started a process of educational reform, of which the most fundamental components are:

New programmes of educational innovation

Extension of the school day

Professional development of teachers

Curricular changes

The implications of this educational reform on educational buildings gave birth to the joint UNESCO/Ministry of Education project. The Government is investing some US$ 1,200,000,000 in the' remodelling, extensions of new buildings or adapting the educational buildings to function in one shift.

The main achievements of the project, which are having a wide resonance, are up to now:

- The development and publication of Design Guidelines for pre-school, primary and secondary education.

- The development of School Furniture Guidelines.

- The publication of a book entitled: Chile. Educational Reform, New Educational Spaces. which presents the trends in school building design during the 1990s.

- The development and publication of Maintenance Guides for School Buildings. Four guides are published: general concepts, sanitary installations, electrical installations and roofs.

- Training and information Seminars in different Provinces of the country

- A national competition for students of the Schools of Architecture of 15 Universities.

- A national competition for the architectural project or the new Secondary School in Easter Island.

We will present slides and inform on the impact of the project at national scale.

A NEW-OLD REFLECTION

When I first started to reflect on my short paper. I thought it was a good idea to divide the paper in two parts. One more theoretical analysis of possible influence on the education of all this powerful tools the new Information Technology (IT) give us. And one more practical, with a few examples of high-schools, where the use of IT is extensive and the educational situation has enhanced. As I continued it did not work out that way.

It is too short a time to evolve such a complicated item as the theortical part. And more

important, in real life the problems are both more complicated and more simple. to be depicted that way.

It means, we had to have a more holistic attitude to education and building for learning and growing. For a long time and still ten years ago I used to classified how school buildings were designed, in two principles. It was two kinds of flexibility.

One was a building with columns and beams with long ran span. movable partitions and no bearing waits. This kind of construction is obviously very flexible in a physical way. It is easy to regroup room and size of room. But this system reflect a rather stiff attitude to education and the environment. This type of design has also been criticized of two main reasons; - the possibility to regroup room and lay-out is very seldom used.

- this type of design often results in indifferent box like buildings without any specific spirit. The other one was a type of building with a rich variations of rooms of different size. It means it has little need of movable partitions. Instead it is a dynamic regrouping of students. They can mostly find a suitabie place for their study. This view is based on the conviction that an activity can take place, with equal quality. during different spatial circumstances. it is a belief in interaction between space and human being. For example, individual studies can take place in a small room for one or two students or in a big library. Yes its trivial to say

that, but still there are many architects who cannot get rid of the most rigid manifestations of functionalism.

Now I will try to take a few steps closer to a holistic attitude. During the late 60s, J. Lloyd Trump, Professor of the University of Illinois, at that time a famous advocate of reform in school education, was pendling between US and Sweden several times a year discussing with teachers and architects in Sweden. It was a period of great optimism with intention to reform education and school building, He said. “The school of yesterday ( I am afraid even today to some extent) was a school for square shaped”. ( The children were not square shaped when they began in the school, but they became so in such environment). It was built up of small identical boxes, called classrooms. Each box had seats for 25-30 units ( one unit it student ) , teached by one teacher. It was a true, one way communication. The school of tomorrow had to be a school for rounded. An unpredictable school, nobody are quite sure what is going to happen during the day. But everybody love the school as it fit as an old comfortable shoe. It is also possible to last. One can always find room behind columns, inside alcoves, under trees. He also called it an evolving school. It is another kind of flexibility. Possible to last and form as clay. Such a school acknowledges that both dreams and searching of facts, are essential parts in the same process. It is like the world where everything started; windows, seats, tables (desks), tower, libraries, fountains, work-room. stairs, gardens etc. Such an environment develop knowledge the same way the tropical rainforest give birth to all kinds of animals and insects. Of course this is in a way a very romantic description. But it is not a description, it is a vision! And I am afraid we have still a long way to go.

(Visa Trumps 2 ill.)

What I just told you about, took place more than 30 years ago, and very much has happened since then. Not least during the last 10 years with the IT revolution. The high schools get new electronic equipment and tools every year. At first one thinks, it must lead to a complete new situation of design of school buildings. But after some time 1 came to the conclusion that the difference is not crucial. Of course we need more table area for all electronic equipment. It will be easier to work in open space, because most of the new tools are rather silent.

We have a rather peculiar problem in the Swedish high-schools at a moment, Most students knows more of using computer and other electronic devices than their teachers do. Just as in Finland. around 70% of all high-school students have there own mobile telephone, talking constantly or are surfing on Internet The students are living in a new era, while the teacher still are in the old. It will even out as time goes.

At our meeting in Stockholm almost 10 years ago our friend and member of the Working Group professor Zeev Drucknan asked. “Do we really need school buildings?” At that time it was like “to spit in the church” as we say in Sweden.

But I think some of us start thinking about the school and the society and how isolated the school mostly are from the rest of the society.

Thanks to the IT revolution and other media todays students learn more in leisure time than during their stay in school!

Maybe we are coming back to the question. if we need school building at all. Of course we need environment for learning and growing. But I am not so sure if we need specific school building It is convenient to assemble children in school buildings. And I confess that many school buildings, old and new, arc of good quality both as environment and function. But honestly, too many are ugly!

The trade market is changing enormously fast and revolutionary. In many trade sectors it is hard to find any boundary line between the production area and the office are. The development of and then production of a product is to day mostly totally integrated, thanks to the use of the IT. In such a world: the school cannot continue to act the way, as it used to. It is absurd to have 25.30 students of the age in a class, learning the same amount of a subject. at the same period of time, when we know that in a so-called “normal class” the span in terms of intelligence and maturity between the “best” and the “poor” students are around five years!. With E-learning the students have the best opportunity ever to study in their own pace with a combination of subjects which suit she or he best, and the importance of the age has diminished. (As we know E-learning is a gathering name for the new computer aided education, which today include much more than computers). It also means a dramatic alteration of the role of the teachers. But how are they educated today?

I am quite sure that IT and E-learning will hasten the death of the classroom, and I will not be among the chief mourners. When the students can keep in touch with all knowledge.

In the old fashioned education it is a direct contact and interaction between teachers and students, and also between students. In other words the school environment has a good social interaction, which we have to be careful with when we change over to more E-learning.

My conclusion is that it doesn’t matter if it is a building with columns and long span beams, or with bearing walls. And today it’s easy to supply a build-ing with all kinds of outlets for electricity and IT devices. And 3-5 years ahead one can with the third generation of mobile telephone operate all computer related functions such as Internet. E-mail and many more. Wireless is marvenous but it doesn’t matter so much.

What really matter is the environment. Particularly the interior environment. A building for learning and growing must be a wonderful place, with beautiful spaces, exquisite colours, stimulating lights, unexpected connections of rooms and meeting places. We architects have an obligation to work very very hard to bring about such a stimulating environment to attain the best possible atmosphere for learning and growing.

I am afraid that my speech has been a little confusing.I talk about the future and visions, but the most radical projects I show you are more than 30 years old! In my mind. if there is any point in (with) my speech, this is the point.

Educational building in the Czech Republic

During the first four decades of the twentieth century, in the period of modern style. purism, cubism and functionalism the Czech and the Slovak architecture raised above the European standard. Particularly the period of functionalism brought out many realizations of outstanding quality. The architecture form was an exact matching of Its function the style was strictly rational and it akmost became a scientific discipline. At that time many educational buildings of great importance were built.

Two examples of educational buildings in Prague built during the functionalism.

I. French School by Czech architect Jan Gillar (1932-1934)

The complex is situated in Prague 6 — Dejvice, consists of a kindergarden, Elementary school and a High School. The architect expressed his scientific and functional point of view. The form of the project matches its function. The complex as a whole is rich And various in details and interesting in division.

The graphic art of the window panes is very fine subtle with a wide range of window openings. Even though all of these details might have been done on the purpose of function the final look goes beyond the idea of scientific functionalism as rigorous and strict.

2 High School by architect Evzen Linntirt (1936-1937)

The school is in Evropska street in Prague 6_

Unlike the early forms of Prague Purism this building was designed in a monumental style. In spite of it's features the building is still a piece of high standard and functional work.

In the period of Socialist Realism in new Czechoslovakia after the second world war during the communist regime, the architecture was influenced by totalitarianism and ideology. The idea of communist ideology brought a comeback of folk traditionalism, historicism and decorativism. Even architects of high reputation abandoned their progressive style. Jan Gillar the architect of the French School , created a small pavilion of classrooms under the influence of historicism, acquiring sculptures and decorative designs.

From the end of the socialist realism until 1989 the prefabricated constructions were in use. Educational buildings were based on prefabricated ferroconcrete skeletons, with hardly any creative and artistic concepts.

The Ministry of Education directed the development by means of '‘Directives of Standard" due to the size of the schools and set down a construction programme

which had to be followed and completed.

Since 1989 new possibilities opened and the developing of schools have more liberate. The Czech schools recently built are much more valuable from an architectural point of view.

High School in Orlova 1996

Arch Josef Krizka

Arch Barbara Potyazova

The building is locate in Orlova industrial zone in the eat of the country, by the Polish border. There arc classes for Polish students as well. The new gymnastic hall has

extending platforms for leisure activities. In fact it is a multi functional center which offers the students a new dimension of spending their free time. The complex

includes clubrooms, gymnasium. dancing hall, cafeteria and photographic atelier. The rooms are situated around the gym hall.

On the ground floor a long passage with language classrooms, study rooms library, exhibition rooms, and a small stationary store On the higher levels rooms for running high school programme.

The concept of the school in Orlova is based on functionalism with traces of wavering between artistic and scientific expression. This modern or even postmodern deconstructivistic building of high quality expresses the feeling of local people bringing them new hopes.

A typical reconstruction and rebuilt of retoration in school in Litomysl (1997)

Arch Mikulas Hulec

Litomysl is a historical town in the east of Bohemia. The complex consists of the baroque. The school area consists of baroque buildings, the fortification tower, the red tower, and a new construction in the courtyard of the school.

The baroque building contains administration, library, lecture halls, ateliers laboratory and photo laboratory.

The courtyard building includes painting ateliers sculpture ateliers and a chemical lab. Red tower is a medieval fortification and will be used as exhibition area, museum of historical collections and deposit rooms.

The red tower with its new roof creates a dominant point of this reconstructed complex and watches the courtyard.

Elementary School in Litomysl (1998)

Arch. Ales Burian

Arch Gustav Krivinka

The leading purpose of the building was to keep its relationship with the famous historical town. Therefore the main entrance is situated towards the beautiful castle and the church.

Three wings with classrooms in a u shape create half-closed courtyard, which occupies the students all day long. The yard leads to an amphitheater. On the western side the gym.

Glass parts of the facades enables the [connection] of the building with the neighborhood, and expresses the free and open character of the school. ft is obvious that life in the school goes on after the lessons are over, The school became a heart of the social life of the town.

On the first floor a roofed corridor connects the gym with the elementary school, The entrance is situated from the nearby street, parallel to the northern border of the area.

The upper glass part of the building creates a visual touch with the other part of the town.

The construction is highly efficient and it is clear that the architect emphasized the concept of contact with the neighborhood, and fitting to the design of the surrounding houses.

The school was built in modern functionalistic style, based on the timeless elegant look. The design of the building itself is an artistic expression of plain purity and unity. Despite all , the look of the budding is anything but stereotype. Its simple box-like shapes are echoing the functionalist architecture of the thirties.

The use of transparent glass all through the building gives us an optimistic impression of free space.

The gym of an elementary school in Tarn aid (1998)

Arch. Josef Faltejek

Tanvald is a town in the north of Czech Republic.

The climate is fairly cold and that explains the pentroof on the gym building.

The gym is a connecting element between two significant point. One is a school designed in a neo-classic style, in the twenties and the other point is a restored villa in an Art-Nouveau style, used as a school of management and business.

The gym building and the Art Nouveau town hall overlook Tansald from a small hill above the town.

The gym cubus is emphasized by its flat roof as well as by its light smooth transparent facade, The angle of the pentroof facing south matches the angle of the slope and corresponds with the roofs of the surrounding houses.

The use of blue and white colors on the walls are an impressive contrast. Even though it might be found shocking at first glance it fits in perfect harmony to the monotonous surroundings.

The quality of the final project goes beyond the regional standards.

The purpose of this lecture was to point out the tradition of modern Czech architecture, which was partially interrupted during a period of about forty years and recently attempts to follow its famous path in a progressive way.

The above mentioned educational buildings are a proof of it.

Arch. Curiel Avraham.

AMMAR - CURIEL ARCHITECTS.

The concerns outlined in this paper are the outcome of experience from the design of several educational complexes in Israel, specifically an elementary school in Ramot Ytzhak, Nesher and the Comprehensive High School "Agnon" in Netanya.

For children, schools and the entire educational system evoke many conflicting emotions and therefore their attitude towards them is often a combination of love and hate. On one hand, the school is the place for study and recreation, while on the other it is easy to recall the unpleasant aspects of schools - the uniformity and a-personal feeling, the long hallways, the poor esthetics and the threat of older children. Together. these create an "institutional" feeling that children are easily intimidated by.

Our role as designers is to create schools that children and youth (12-18 year old) can appreciate, identify with, and enjoy being in, to enhance the good feeling schools create, while mitigating the unpleasant aspects we have described. To achieve this goal, it is especially important to break away from the institutional image and create environments with unique characters, to which children can relate and which inspire a sense of "community pride",

Programmatically, schools house spaces for studying (usually the fifty square meter classroom) and areas for recreation. In our designs, we chose to concentrate our efforts on these surrounding areas. leaving the classrooms in their traditional form. Our object was to replace the long corridors with inviting and stimulating spaces. Accordingly, the schools were divided into several areas each with a central meeting space, that includes seating areas, exhibition walls and a variety of spaces for multiple uses. The color schemes designed for the schools, were meant to emphasize this division into areas and give each one its own identity. These spaces were allotted to different classes thus minimizing the friction between children of different ages.

The design goals were interpreted differently in each of the examples. The campus in Nesher is composed of 2 middle schools. (18 classrooms each) and a shared resource center that includes a library, science laboratories and a gymnasium. Each school was designed as a separate space surrounding an airy, well-lighted central space with a stepped seating area with direct access to the yard and other outdoor spaces. These spaces, which were called "houses" were clustered together in the topography, The school, as a landmark in the built environment, has become a point of reference in the neighborhood. The comprehensive school "Agnon" in North Netanya will house. when completed, 48 classrooms. In this school the "houses" for each age group are situated along a street that functions as the central artery of the school.

The entire school has free access to this "street". which is only partly covered. The complex environment of 'house" "streets' and all that is in between, allows the children to choose different places in which to gather and play.

In the follow-ups we have conducted in the schools, we found that children are proud to be pupils in their school and describe their relationship to it with reference to the colors and shapes of the building. Their re^-actions also include criticism, which we see as an indication that they feel at home in their schools and wish to change and improve. Their positive attitude is also evident in the upkeep of the building and the relatively small amount of physical damage.

The High School Towards the 21^st Century: One school across the XXth Century

Jose M.R. Freire da Silva. arch Lisbon, Portugal.

The Escola Marquis de Pombal in Lisbon. started as an Industrial school in 1884 to help the industrialisation of the country, during the final decades of the Portuguese monarchy. It was the time when industrial and commercial teaching meant to prepare useful and good men for society. by the virtues of working and through a complete set of learning subjects.

For this school came teachers from Germany and Italy to teach drafting techniques (decorative, architecture and machinery) as well as local teachers for mechanics. physics, chemistry, arithmetic's, geometry and French language.

From New York came lamps for electric lighting produced by an Edison machine working by vapour and a connection was made with a nearby astronomic observatory, giving the school the exact time.

The building - a beautiful building according to a journalist from that time was made under a project by a local architect and built with money given by the King himself. It was a three storey building racing the street with classrooms in the ground floor and with a ‘noble' floor where the headmaster had his office, the administrative staff managed the school and also for drafting classes. The top floor housed the library, collections for geometry and topography and also French language and mathematics classes, as well as feminine works.

In the back side of the building, not reflected in the facade composition, were the workshops for the practical teaching in what we may call an addition to the main building, somehow, another category of building, another world. This school had a great success arid used to receive some two to three hundred pupils each year. boys and girls.

In the decade of 40. the new concept of society brought the need for specific labour like electricians. carpenters. metal workers and more qualified professions for cars and aircraft industry and a complete new building was designed for 2.000 pupils.

A place was found within the same neighbourhood and a contradictory design gave the school a new building in a new site.

In fact it seems more like a big factory with a layout that spreads several buildings across a large piece of land and with imposing facades showing somehow the power of the state. the power for achieving material benefits for the nation.

The school moved to its new premises and brought all its collections, But those items related to the visual and decorative arts were kept apart in boxes and m what was called, later, a museum. 1 think that a research of the form and the aesthetic of the industrial artefacts was lost and the school became mainly a technical school for mechanics and electricians and more qualified labour for industry. regardless of any other preoccupations

Industrial production was becoming numbers, amounts of money. investment, journey. interest, and business.

In the seventies, the school system in Portugal had a complete change. These old technical schools and the classic lyceums became all part of one unified system where the learning of those technical skills was almost ignored and abandoned. Those large workshops, as well as complete labs. became useless and the machines and equipment became very soon outdated. Most of the spaces were then adapted to normal classrooms and this school. prepared for 2.000 pupils. was filled with almost 4.000. Then, large workshops became useful for non-academic uses like theatre, or local civic societies, or even for storage.

Now, in the end of the 90's, turning to the XXI century. school authorities face the need for professional schools and for qualified technicians for this new society of communications and new technologies, The school. also, believes in its heritage and in its importance on technical teaching and wants to play a new role as some autonomic status is taking place in the way schools are managed.

We started working on a new plan for the school.

In this plan, for what we started listening to the teachers, we established new connections between different buildings and places, changing the centre of the school and integrating the workshop areas in the whole school area, no more in a distant and secondary place.

Also, the museum is proposed to integrate a new resource centre that may be related to local community.

And the workshops themselves. are proposed to be remodelled so that the building structure can be regarded in its potential abilities to create an internal environment suitable to new technologies, keeping its large suspended cover free from the walls that kept it hidden. allowing new partitions and new circulation. creating multiple space units for the fast evolving technical teaching subjects.

And we hope that this large building, in a century old school. will allow the remodelling for a XXI century future school.

May 2000

ARCH. LOURDES MELENDEZ
ARCH, A. EDUARDO MILLAN

INTRODUCTION:

All people in cities and college professors use computers in their professional lives outside the academic realm. however, their use is never mentioned in design lectures or classes, unless a teacher comments on the virtues of a particular software.

This paper will address basic questions about bringing computer technology to the School of Architecture and Urban Design at the Central University of Venezuela, it also summarizes the vision and strategy set towards this end. There arc already other initiatives working to obtain this goal, but their scope reaches only faculty members and do not meet the minimal specifications required for design and architectural tasks.

Why must the use of this technology be integrated to the School of Architecture? Since the answer would have to clarify the truth and myth about the use of this tool in offices and studies around the world, let us limit the discussion to the recognition of the transcendence of computers as a paradigm of contemporary life, much like machine writers were in their time. Ironically the manufacturers of Intel processors describe its design and structure using the following phrase: " the architecture of the new processor”, therefore revealing that not only computers are becoming a part of architecture, but also. architecture already is a part of computers, since they within themselves contain space, shape, media and progressively men.

GOALS:

The program main goal is to incorporate the computer technology as a didactic resource for design teaching in the School of Architecture and Urban Design. this goal is conceived as a progressive cultural processs, which will change the current relationship between the teaching /learning process and the designing process, in a way that it will be flexible and open to all "design units.

This program would eventually include other academic areas or subject matter, as long as workgroups are created to this purpose.

The fundamental axis of the program is the creation of a Digital Studio, which would offer elective design courses to promote the use of computers as a design tool, as well as the insight and communication about design issues through Internet.

To this purpose. the creation of a web page will be necessary to provide interchange activities with national or international universities which share similar goals.

DIGITAL STUDY DESCRIPTION:

The Digital Study is conceived as a didactical flexible space. with a maximum capacity of 20 people in groups of 5, where users may have access to computers and to the Internet, and will also have Automatized Drawing Aplication Programs, Scanners. Printing and Plotting devices.

The Digital Study will be furnished with the following;

• Computers Lab: 20 PC units accessible through a magnetic card personalized with a code, and available to be sold to every student of the pre-grade levels of all academic units and printer for, plotter for large format, and Scanner.

• Printing Center: Laser color and b & w Printer for standard format I I" x 9" and medium format 11" x 7", and a plotter for 36" wide format.

Digital Forum: To be used as an exposition center for the ideas developed at the digital studio, equipped with two mobile units of Video Beam and PC.

DIGITAL ESTUD1O OPERATION AND SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS:

Since the digital study is a public service, it has to bt available to different users on different schedules, therefore, the security of the equipment can not be controlled through the magnetic card, and must be secured through the use of locks and security beams, as well as through a security system with cameras and monitors interconnected to the School's watchmen service at the reception desk.

On regular working hours the study will be managed by an assistant, who will also provide technical support to users in the presence of difficulties. This assistant will be chosen from the students who have shown the most proficiency level in the use of the equipments and applications, the availability of such a person will be guaranteed by establishing an appropriate schedule for these students.

ACTION PLAN

In the following paragraph the steps to be taken for the establishment of the Digital Study area, listed and grouped according to their nature; this will allow to open the Digital Study according to the goals set. This plan is not definitive and might be changed during its execution.

• Interior Design and Installations Project - Construction Budget

• Equipment Project (Furniture) - Furniture Budget

• Assesment and Bidding Process for Computers and required equipment.

• Assesrnent and Bidding Process for Internet connection services - Service Budget

• Purchase of Licences for Applications of software for Graphics, CAD and Internet - Purchase Budget

• Purchase of equipment and furniture

• Reconstruction of the space, according to the interior design project (including installations)

• Furniture delivery and installation.

• Equipment delivery and installation.

• Opening of the Digital Study.

Since the available space for the Digital Study is within the School of Architecture and Urban Design, the reconstruction project will respect to the maximum extent its original character, in order to adjust it to the requirements of a Digital Study.

CONCLUSIONS:

The use of computers is determined by its interconnexion power. and this aspect is becoming a force of change in the every day life of each society and economy.

The understanding of this paradigm leads to the recognition of a main strategy: the gradually progressive involvement of teachers and. students until a critical mass is created which will produce the use of computers in academic courses especially designed to reach the main goal.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Surveying design teachers who are already computer users.

• Identifying and classifying users according to platform (Mac/PC/Unix), applications used (Minicad & Autocad/ Form Z. Microstation), user group, and role that the computer plays in their offices and studios.

• Promoting financial agreements for teachers and students in order to allow the purchase of equipment - leasing, so they may have regular access to genuine equipment, which will create a secondary market at the university.

• Open discussion of ideas through forums and presentations of elective courses, and exhibitions in public areas of the School to show the conclusions. These activities far from being "propaganda" are conceived as a mean to induct the process of critical mass already discussed. If these pnnciples are achieved, the creation of another Digital Studios would be studied.

Slide presentation summary Yael s. Kinsky. AIA May 2000

E-LEARNING

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ALL IN COMBINATION

There is a change in the perception of the next generation

The future;

Everyone is on line

Every business is dot-com

Everybody is connected to the internet

To the cellular

To the World Wide Web

Reading, writing and driving

Are equal to surfing, chatting and networking

And who wants to be illiterate?

I believe that the same way the car changed our life completely, the information technology will influence the way we live, and our built environment will reflect

this change.

E-COMMERCE
E-BUSINESS
E-MAIL
E-ARCHITECT
E-BANKING
E-TRADE
E-SHOPPING
E-LEARNING
IS IT A NEW LANGUAGE OR A NEW CONCEPT?

From this concept emerges the following lifestyle: less time needed to retrieve information, it will be a process of lifelong learning, less work related traveling, more social

segregation. A person can stay at home to do his research and eventually will have more free time.

My personal opinion is that we will use the extra time to socialize more and compensate for the lack of company,

So we need to take care of the meeting places and design architecture that will accommodate those needs.

An alternate view of a school.

The most important function of a school may not be to deliver academic education in the traditional sense but to provide social skills for survival in the adult world.

Contrast that with the raising of the academic bar . . .

And another view:

Secretary Richard W. Riley the former Minister for Education in the USA is concerned: In Philadelphia, two weeks ago he claimed: "300 billions of dollars were dedicated over 5 years period to change the learning environment in our communities it doesn't make sense to use the buildings a third of the time per day and three quarters of the years".

To get funds, Secretary Riley suggests the following:

• I. To arrange better use of buildings in the community.

• Tax exemptions on school construction.

• Bonds in the community as financial instrument.

He also recommended smaller schools which are better involved in the community

And he raised the question whether large schools have better labs, but, the bottom line is whether they create better scientists?

Breaking and mending:

Let’s break our foundations of society into components which are the comer stones of our culture: resource centers, classrooms, places for worship and reflect, displays, museums. galleries, performing arts, community centers, youth and adult activities, sport activities, health facilities, social meeting places. education, leisure and fun, communication centers. Lets put it all together what are we going to get?

Complexity:

So we can re-organize everything?

Schools are NOT grades factories, schools are the center of the future society as such; they can be very different from one another.

Aren't we all?

Let us create all kinds of assemblies which reflects holistic design approach:

Examplel:

A place to be inspired - Frank Lloyd Wright

A place to socialize - 42nd st. NY

A place to reflect

A place that^-challenges perception: Surprise surprise - this is something else

A place of the future - The new Guggenheim in NY by Frank Gehry.

A place for gathering Hasharon Israel - sometimes it's crowded

Redlands East Valley High School CA 3000 students 27,000 sq.m. 31 million dollars

completed 1997

Notice the community spaces in school design, which develops from the negative/positive of the street.

Henry Ford Academy of Manufacturing Art and Science, 400 students school, collaboration of a motor company, museum and the community,

Sharm – el - sheik Bruce Jilk creating social interaction in the main street.

The metaphor for the project is "City of Discovery" 100-200 students family clusters divided into 10 groups of 10 students 90% of the time is dedicated to informal learning in the drawing individual workstations, workgroups,and central resource area. Sharm el - sheik bruce j ilk informal spaces for social interaction

Mt. Edgecumbe High - Alaska

This is possibly the world foremost example based on the japanese business principle of KAISEN. or continuous improvement. Students set their own goals and run 4 pilot companies as they learn a variety of talents and skills.

Again holistic approach or what is called here interdisciplinary methology.

Montgomery Blair High School Silverspring Maryland SHW Group. Central street for social interaction connects community activities with learning wing.

2800 students 38.000 sq.m. including resource center, theater, music center and cafeteria, Zoo School Mineapolis 440 students 4 houses

HGA Educational Design Group 7000 sq.m. 800 $/sqm completed 1995. 440 students 20-5 students workstations grouped around central lecture/resource space, a science lab. teachers planning room. convertible conference room and classroom in each house.

Makif yahud Israel reorganizing scheme to creating “main street".

Makif yahud - reorganizing learning and socializing spaces

Creating second street for social interaction formal and informal places.

Berlin Zvi Heifer - central courtyard, fun places.

Diamond Ranch High school CA Thom Mayne:

One with the site, social groupings, educational flexibility.

Diamond Ranch High School - Thom Mayne main greet

References and resources:

Schools As Centers of Commmmunity Citizens Guide. US Department of Education.

Bruce Jilk AlA •-Interviewby Randy Fielding, Nov. 1998

Steven Bigler AIR - Better Schools for the New Century

PIP CAE (committee on artchitecture for education) San - Francisco 1998

Ann Taylor - Learning Environments San Francisco 1998

A lap top for every kid Ellen Martens

"FORGING IDENTITIES FOR LATIN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES"

Arch. Jeffrey J. Berk.

One of our studio's main concerns these past years has been working with schools’ identity. Too many community activities happen in our school premises for them not to have a primary involvement in our urban tissue.

Functional urbanism and different educational trends have, in many cases, relegated the symbolic importance of schools as the institutions in which our children, teenagers and adolescents exercise their first community, civic and democratic habits-Many schools have preferred the bucolic isolation of a silent separate site in our cities to an easy handy site in the heart of our communities, where our students could easily reach and enjoy a natural interrelation of Home- School-City,

When schools assume their responsibility of urban involvement they become an INSTITUTION to the city, a daily accessible reference for the neighbourhood, As such, schools can have the unique opportunity of becoming the grounds where people can meet, develop, discuss, exercise, research and most of all, integrate actively in a community, not only as students but as families. Then schools not only become important Institutions to our communities but become a meaningful PLACE where things happen. Internet has become a world wide tendency and we claim that through it we are have become globalized: we know much more, see much more, communicate much more, this in itself is good, but how much more segregated from our communities arc we as Individuals? Are we not losing our contact with people, neglecting social relationships and becoming personally isolated? Our schools should be the place where we can enjoy and look forward to a healthy equilibrium after so much technology and so little personal interrelation.

If our schools can provide these PLACES they will dwell as fond memories and a

reference to look back on throughout the lifetime of their inhabitants as well as being a bonus to our societies in the present. Buckminster Fuller said. "Reform the environment, stop trying to reform people. They will reform themselves if the environment is right. We must involve the community as it takes the whole village to educate a child". if this statement is at least a partial truth, we must rethink our schools. Are they the sort of places our society needs for the life-long learning processes we face nowadays?

Most of the studio's clients are community schools. They represent different

communities that have settled in our country, Having come from different countries and settled in a new one, these community schools integrate and enrich the culture they have established in. The following are examples of different schools where we have tried to apply these concepts. Due to our young heritage in America we must work as place makers, forging identities for our communities.

Designing for a lost identity

Each school has a very definite character and our work has been to understand it and work on it. St Paul's College in Hurlingham is a small school that caters for approximately 400 students. in l995 the school suffered the burning down of its main building, an early century Victorian house.

Our main concern was to work on its institutional character as seen by the neighbourhood and at the same time on an intimate scale for its interior. This was

developed around the metaphor of a well known typology: The Elizabethan Theatre. The multipurpose hall's stage was opened towards the inner courtyard, the classrooms and

galleries surround this courtyard, which in this case, is also a part of the school's playground.

Designing within an Institution's Identity

Every school is in a particular environment and has a specific role towards its community. St. George's College in Quilmes celebrated it's 100th Anniversary with the

construction of a Theatre Arts Complex for their high school facilities. Our aim here, beyond the actual program, was that of creating a civic centre in the heart of the campus which was missing one, giving it an added value. In this case, the courtyard the theatre generates, congregates and organises other existing school buildings such as the library and computer department, the cafeteria, the sanatorium and the academic offices creating a new place.

Identity in an ever changing society.

Education is not exempt from the changes society is going through and our mission is to understand these changes and interpret the physical space these need and

can produce. At Florida Day School in Vicente Lopez, we built a new high school in a densely populated area. In this case, we created a central cloister covered with a wooden roof. In creating the character, we worked around a phrase Winston Churchill once said: "We shape our buildings and later they shape us". This took us to consider a particular virtue: sincerity. The building should be able to reflect this virtue not only from the pedagogical point of view but also through the building itself. The classrooms should be open to the community through its corridors and be an exposition of it's projects, This way as younger students walk the building they can begin to become familiar with future aims whilst the older ones refresh past projects.

Identity for as new community

Schools in new communities have the privilege of becoming community references. The school's theatre, gyms, and classrooms are increasingly used after hours

for community events and continuing educational programs. As Nordelta is a new development growing takes time, in the beginning there is nothing: no trees, few houses, few people, no places. Northlands has the unique opportunity of becoming an important reference place for Nordelta. As such we have taken special care in designing the school to recreate special differently qualified spaces gathered around a main axis. First we arrive at the main entrance, the starting point which opens on to a main courtyard similar to many Jesuit schools. This courtyard gathers the primary and middle school programs and leads on to the clock-tower which is a pivoting event between primary and middle/high school, The middle and high school is arranged along a succession of departments that conform an open courtyard similar in a way to Jefferson's campus at the University of Virginia. This takes us to a final focal point at the gymnasium. At the middle of our main axis, near the clock tower, a new axis at 90° organises the playing fields along a pedestrian's tree lane. Other programs such as the Kindergarten and theatre are set out with easy access to the parking areas.

PROF. S. H. WANDREKAR, MUMBAI, INDIA.

The learning conditions differ from country to country, specially, from developed to developing countries, The reason are : the poverty and the mass population. For example, India covers 2.5% of land on this planet and has 16% of the world population, which is just over one billion. More than % people live below poverty line. More than % men and women are still illiterate.

While efforts are being made by the Governments to improve the situation and while getting ready for critical action, we look with optimism and hope. We are aware that without hope, there may not be any worthwhile future.

One may be bogged down worrying about small and big present problems. But it is necessary to concentrate efforts on the larger, long-terrn problems of educating the masses, We need to take into account their magnitude and likely consequences. Necessary steps should be taken now to avoid future disasters.

The development in knowledge prospered in the 1990's under the so-called "Decade of Brain". More knowledge has been accumulated in the past ten years than in any previous several decades. The new knowledge is leading us to new technologies, which promise and ever increasing quality of life. It has created an integration of information, knowledge and wisdom into a global network.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS EDUCATORS.

We, therefore, need to build capacities for transformation of new technologies to deal wisely with the increasingly complex future and help the communities to sustain and improve themselves through fast changing scenario. Scholastic knowledge is not enough in the information age. Success in life will require that we transcend academic and technical skills and develop adaptation strategies for knowledge — based societies of future.

The concept of transformational learning is the keystone idea for communities of the future. The pathway for sustainabiIity will have to set out new approaches to community needs to help transform the learning institutions for the twenty-first century.

The New World of the next century will provide new opportunities for which new ideas and new ways of doing things will be necessary in the world that will demand nothing less than the best.

What will our lives be like in the next century? How will we live, work, play and learn? The life in the next century will be molded by social changes, technology and globalization. We will have to perfect self-enhancing and self-lifting aspects of our goals to propel our future achievements be learning three different functions of goals, i.e. to co-ordinate, to motivate and to re-evaluate in order to recognize coming threats and opportunities.

APPROACH TO EDUCATION

The Educationists and Management Experts will have to systematically and effectively perceive and analyze essential future developments. Future thinking will have to be normal exercise for all those dealing with education to establish a link between research and management strategies.

The curriculum developers, facilitators and professional educators will have to strive for continuos excellence and world-class performance levels, Ability to act as single team of Experts will be essential to form world class institutions, which will be stable and influential. The decisions by the Teams to be made faster, less complex, and exclusive for quicker and effective implementation.

Learner- centered classrooms and schools must transform the future of the classrooms through brain-based learning. Learning faster, remembering more, recalling better, retaining what is learnt and building new capacities should be considered while developing new systematic learning models. The curriculum has to have student's all-round development at the center of planning to achieve the goals faster.

THE COMPUTER AGE

Millions of students are plugged into virtual classrooms. Predictions are that the number of cyberspace students will triple in next few years. The explosive change and growth of Internet and information retrieval system threatens the instructional format of traditional schools. We now need to explore the new delivery system, which will change the philosophy, teaching methods, and the tenure systems in the schools.

Research and development projects will have to be undertaken exclusively to create comprehensive computer packages that will give access to the most common and up-to-date methods in future studies. The goal has to be to produce a computer - based methodological tool-box for anticipating changes in society, economy and professional qualifications, The Internet is having profound impact on the research methodologies used by futurists and educationist.

In the twenty-first century VIVO (Voice in - Voice out) computers using visual displays, but no text, will make written language obsolete, VIVO will perform the fix^-lotion of receiving, storing and retrieving information more easily, effectively and universally without requiring people to learn to read or write. There may not be compelling reasons for schools to teach literacy skills.

By the year 2050 the electronically developed nations will become a worldwide oral cultures. Today's push to develop VIVO's is further step in the human evolutionary drive to move past written languages limits and return to the biogenetic, oral - aural, pre-alphabetic roots of human communication and information storage.

In our efforts to find solutions for appropriate learning models for future, it must be remembered that planning should encourage energies, idealism and freshness of thought of young students, which will create the right kind of environment suitable for training them as futurists.

PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

In developing countries like India the school building should pose as a community asset and an investment in the quality of community life. The building should perform duel purpose of being a combination of learning institution and a social institution of relevance to the community.

The people from surrounding localities / villages / towns should be able to share all activities of the school along with progressive ideas and new knowledge.

The school campus must assure health for the body, peace for the mind and harmony with environment. The architecture of the school must blend with the local natural ecology, creating feeling of happiness for living and learning, It should be like a spiritual centre with sense of belonging and being part of the natural world.

It should create a source of true well-being and be fundamental to the new vision of ecology, where physical and spiritual needs of young children are thoroughly integrated. After being frustrated with life in cities and towns, children must find respite in the campus to live with the new community to realize the truth olgoodness, righteousness, virtue and justice.

The campus environment must help to cultivate human values of service, love, sacrifice, humanity, duty, devotion, tolerance and others that help to perfect the growing child.

It must dispense not only knowledge, but also the direction tharis proper and good for enrichment of human life.

Architecture of school buildings must be an art of future, a perpetual project whose plans are constantly redrawn to accommodate the changing patterns of society, politics and economy. It must respond to human creativity and cultural continuity.

The modem day hectic life for parents leave them little time to attend to their children's mental and physical development. As a result, the children get distracted to unhealthy pursuits in bad company and suffer in academic progress. It inadvertently affects psychic balance, sometimes terminating into disastrous end.

In congested cities and towns, which are also badly polluted, there is a lack of enough open playgrounds for recreation. School-going children hardly get sufficient exposure to sports and games and suffer from unhealthy physical development.

The schools. particularly in cities of developing countries can hardly cope up with the demand for ever-increasing admissions. Particularly, good schools have tremendous pressure. As a result, more and more children are cramped up in small classrooms and more divisions are added to each grade. The teachers with 60 / 70 students in a class cannot do justice to students in delivering high quality of education. Discipline amongst the students is also affected and the students turn out rowdy and violent.

SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS

The solution to these and many such problems of urban schools, which affect child's all-round development during their schooling age, is to build residential schools in peaceful locations, away from congested urban centers.

The world is getting smaller and smaller as the barriers are fast diminishing due to constant flow of people, goods, services, knowledge and money. The exercise of re-examining courses at schools and the need for required spaces and environment will have to be continuos in order to be up-to-date. To meet new challenges and new demands, designers, architects and planners will have to engage themselves in research as a basis for creating brain-compatible environment. Mistakes of the past must be used as guidelines for working our more appropriate future strategies with lesser mistakes.

We have knowledge and ability to solve our problems. We also have the science and technology at our disposal to correct our mistakes, which have caused great damage to the present ecology. We now need to come to grips with our environment and restore the damage. We have been doing to the ecology of our land. Green power and green governance must dominate planning of the built environment. Architects and planners must create schools for young children, where they will learn to respect the nature, the ecology of the land as well is the cultural values. Science of Eco-friendly building must become core of modem education to ensure safe, healthy and comfortable living and learning environment for the future generations.

The aim of the school education should be to bring out in each child by providing him / her with ample opportunities to reach his / her life fullest potential academically, morally, emotionally, spiritually, socially and physically.

Authors:

Nikos Tsinlluss. Dr. Architect. Professor

Fani Vavili, Dr. Architect, Associate Professor

Department of Architectural Design & Architectural Technology

School of Architecture, Faculty of Technology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

The last years the Greek Ministry of Education. on the basis of upgrading and modernization of the educational system. promotes "school libraries in education and society" and develops 500 libraries at secondary schools throughout the country. It is accepted that a democratic society is necessary to be based on the education and the critical thought of its citizens. It is accepted also that such a thought can not be treated systematically nowhere else better than in the schools. Consequently the existence of libraries is considered as the milestone for such an approach.

The planning of the action of the development of "School Libraries" includes two phases: a) a pilot phase for the development and function of 50 school libraries and b) the development phase of creation of the rest 450 libraries, The scope of the pilot phase was necessary in order to evaluate the first remodeled library spaces in order to re-examine the basic decisions on the following aspects: the suitability of the criteria for choosing existing spaces in the school complex; the remodeling of the chosen spaces according to the specific standards: the supplement of electronic and other necessary equipment: the training and education of the users; the information of the public and the local society.

Today the action "School Libraries" has reached the final stage cif completion. Some of the remodeled library spaces will be presented in this paper in order a) to discuss the chosen standards and the quality of the new interior environment (furniture, computers, books etc.) b) to present aspects of the training and education of the personnel el to touch cost matters and d) to look at future possibilities.

Preface

The last 180 years. since the inauguration of the Greek Democracy, very little has been done on libraries for the secondary education in Greece. The last 20 years 200 basic libraries were established in secondary schools. The lack of an overall plan resulted to the underused or the close down of library services at secondary schools.

The last years the Greek Ministry of Education on the basis of upgrading and modernization of the educational system promotes "school libraries in education and in society" and develops 500 libraries at secondary schools throughout the country. It is accepted that a democratic society is necessary to be based on the education and the critical thought of its citizens. It is accepted also that such a thought can not be treated systematically nowhere else better than in the schools. Consequently the existence of libraries is considered as the milestone for such an approach.

Planning and Design concept

The main scope of the project was to create, organize and function a great number of libraries in existing spaces in school buildings. In order to achieve this scope a number of components have been discussed, analyzed, designed and decided in order the best function to be assured. These elements belong in the following categories: a) design and construction b) equipment c) training d) collection of books.

The planning of the action of the development of "School Libraries" includes two phases. The first phase is the pilot phase arid includes the development and function of 50 school libraries. The pilot phase was necessary in order to apply the planning decisions and evaluate the selected design standards in relation to furniture and equipment of school buildings throughout the country. The second is the development phase of the creation—remodeling of the 450 libraries. There will be a future third phase. the completion of the program. which depends on future several educational, political and economical decisions.

The schools in which libraries were going to be created were selected on certain social criteria. librarianship and building criteria. Thus selection was based on • geographical distribution in order to minimize travel distances and maximize the number of users • the type of the settlements -e.g. rural, mountainous, urban areas etc.-, • the number of students. the layout of the buildings and * the possibilities for easy access and • access for disabled people. Future expansion of the library, independent entrance, the nearness to the staff offices, the natural light, were also taken in to consideration. Social criteria were very important including the intention the school libraries to act as educational and information centers (remote areas were selected also) and the expressed support of the local community and the school staff.

The size of each library was calculated on the basis of the number of students and the catchment population. Two types of libraries were developed 75 m2 and 125m2 as prototypes to be adapted in all cases. The size of 50 m2, which was applied in some cases, is considered as the minimum size for a school library.

The layout is organized in four areas: a) the entrance, reception & information (15-33 m2), b) the reading area (18-49 m2) c) bookshelves (17-40 p.2), d) the area of audio­visual apparatus (2 m2) which_!in small libraries can be combined with the reception area. In the design process the minimum standards set by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) were taken into consideration also.

The whole project can be presented shortly under four headings grouping the actions had to be organized and completed.

I) Design of the projects and the construction of the buildings. There was a limited time to complete a large number of small projects spread in a vast area geographically speaking. The job suited, basically, to young architects. For the construction works responsible was the Technical Services of the Universities. The Universities were acted as project managers because of their capacity, in personnel as well as organization, to undertake, in the framework of the public sector, such a big project (including huge administrative work also).

II) Furniture, computers (with Internet and bar code readers), fax, photocopy machines, and audio — visual equipment (TV, video, and hi-fi) were supplied for every library. The basic standards were set centrally but the final selections were a dilemma for its. who bad to decide between higher quality and the demanded reduction of the cost.

III) Education and training of library staff That consisted of a number of seminars in order to educate and train the librarians and other personnel who was going to operate the libraries as well as seminars for the school representatives. A big discussion is still going about the question "who is the proper person to operate a school library; the librarians only or other school staff can be involved also?

IV) Collection of Books, 6000 titles were selected centrally by a committee established by the Ministry of Education, The selected titles cover different thematic areas such as history, mathematics, humanities, sports etc. The obligation was that every school book selection has to include almost 80% of the books suggested in each thematic area. Special software for the certain libraries was developed in order each library to communicate electronically to the rest. This was the first vast introduction of students, school staff, and the public to .the so-called "Information Society".

Comments

Closing that short presentation of our experience of this project there are a few last comments. Scope of the pilot studies is the evaluation during operation of the first, remodeled library, spaces. This is so in order to re-consider our basic decisions. Then to "feed back" the "decision making process" and continue with the rest of the project. The running cost has also to be taken into consideration. Secondary schools in Greece, as in most countries I assume, are running on a fixed year budget. Thus the extra cost of the operation of their libraries is not meaningless. Important part of the whole project is also to inform the public and the local society in order to certify their support.

Finally it must be said that each society has its own level of social and economic development. Resources are always limited and societies have to establish priorities arid hierarchy of decisions, For Greece this is the first time that we could invest such a big budget on public school libraries. And although we are not absolutely happy of some of the choices determined the interior design made due, basically, to cost limitations, we are delighted that so many young people, especially in rural areas, have immediate and quick access to information.

School buildings in Romania

Petre Swoboda, Architect

- The development curves of education science and architecture do not coincide in chronological terms. Modern times saw explosive developments in architecture and also the emergence of a new type of school where pedagogical innovation did not quite grasp the need concurrently to modify the architectural ordering of educational space.

-The 70s, however, produced a period of innovation in Romanian education that called for a different use of space; architects became increasingly reluctant to resort to industrial construction methods (standard design, prefabricated materials) which they were required to follow. Even in the 90s, when architects took over as managers of complex projects in a real sense, they still saw the educational and social requirements as outdated and unfair, often confusing and not very challenging.

- Another observation concerns the legitimacy of pedagogical and social demand. Who can and who should define which sort of educational space is good and proper ?

- Between 1970 and 1990 teachers had to put up_. with the legitimacy of standard design schools, A class of pupils had no stable home. In order to save space they had to be constantly on the move from classroom to lab, to workshop, to gymnasium and so forth. Setting standards and models was the responsibility of the Investments Department in the Ministry of Education comprising not only educators but also engineers an architects. Central command and planning resulted in a high degree of standardisation of buildings for educational purposes. The tendency was to go for a simple model; as a result of progressive industrialisation of construction procedures most school buildings looked alike, multiplied for the sake of economy of scale and lower cost. Technical blueprints described all elements, which were further combined according to the destination and the size of the project. Endless technical and financial norms stifled any attempt at forward planning.

- The terms of reference was a two-page thing with two-thirds of the data devoted to the site and terrain. The educational dimension was stripped down to a few general sentences. Most architectural designs were also rationalised. The Investments Department asked for better outward appearance, but it also save its blessing to contractors offers and construction systems. It was hard to make a difference between simple box-like structures with an assigned green space around them since the shape of a school building was predetermined by merely multiplying the area allocated by ministerial rationing to every student. With a maximum allowed length limited to 7,2 metres the classroom size had been decided long ago and was endlessly repeated, while educational requirements were relegated to a secondary position. Any link to professional experience had already been broken because of the general nature of prescriptions.

- The decentralisation that occurred after 1990 handed overall responsibility to territorial communities and their elected representatives, but it still made the question of legitimacy hostage to the commissioning procedures. New constructions had the follow the same patterns because the financial situation and austerity measures precluded diversification,

- Finally, the relationship between space and the use of it increases the advantages of mobilising resources rather than dispersing them. It is not sufficient to relocate the teaching staff in an architectural setting that is severed from the traditional space of a school for the simple reason that educational practices are changing. The use of space, furniture and other equipment plays an important part in the educational process. They can sustain it or disturb it, but they do not determine it substance. The adults or the students may try to use these resources in accordance with the projects that they are pursing at the moment.

- in Romania, the Ministry of National Education sticks to its standardisation policies while hoping at the same time to ensure equal chances for all students and to persuade the educators to change their current practices. This is being done by changing the school space and forcing it to open up to life. Still, the assignment is complicated because of a multitude of references. Considering the wider scope of required action, ministerial services, where the engineers are now the prevailing element, try to diversify the existing standards by drawing their inspiration from innovations that are not in step with majority educational practices. The architects have become "adapters" in a game of Lego with construction systems.

- As we witness a rapid material deterioration of industrial-type constructions, it also becomes obvious that architects are unwilling to surrender their right to create rather adapt forms. It appears that the command system applied to the use of space was not appealing to educators. .Continued standardisation as a matter of national policy denying local initiative and the uniqueness of each project simply did not work.

- Design competitions became current practice in the 90s. Even though some perverse effects of a competitive environment have been highlighted in the process, this had a revolutionary impact on school construction. Structural approaches are being modified as the architect has recovered his right to conceptual creativeness.

- Decentralisation, following the annulment of the old standards on 1 January 1990 was presented as a way to bring decision making closer to the citizen. in actual fact it did not systematically bring the contract awarding system closer to the actual requirements,

- It is assumed that the elected representatives are in control, But are they the only ones who can place orders? In legal terms, yes. The users have no legal status in that procedure. Nowadays, when innovations and extensions are more numerous than new constructions, the idea of a possible interface between what is desirable and what is being actually ordered has made some progress, but it has not yet prevailed. The definition of end-user is still unclear.. Can a schoolmaster or principal be the only persons who articulate a perceived need ? Getting to know what is needed is far from being equivalent - every where and for everyone — to a useful component in programme design, The confusion is compounded by the profusion of pedagogical practices.

- The relationship between educational-social commandment and architectural design is today more complex than ever because the terms of reference have also multiplied. The state is not involved in reducing the complexity caused by standards and models; it no longer gives legitimacy to a given form by declaring it appropriate for educational purposes. The decision is back in the hands of the actors, Writing the terms of reference is the real moment of choice, when the desired effects are put in hierarchical order. This is a considerable task because the operation has to be justified for the records of a number of highly varied institutional players such as public finances, city planning authorities, local administration, educational establishment, aesthetic and safety standards, etc.

- Our target as architecs is not to overlap with the aims of education or pedagogical methods but rather to cause different interpretations of the curriculum to converge in a certain disposition of space, which then everyone will be able to use according to specific preferences.

FACILITIES

Lecturer ARCH. ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ SOBERO

Research done for 'The Foundation for the Construction and Fumishment of Schools" (FEDE) by Arch. A. Eduardo Millan, Arch, Lourdes Melendez, Arch. Hector A. Cedres and B,Sc. Rina Romero

SYSTEMATIZING ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS:

FIRST STEP TOWARDS COST EFFICIENCY

• The need to provide equal acres to educational services and to maximize the financial

  resources available to this purpose, brought the development of architectural solutions that can be repeated limitless number of times throughout the country.

• These architectural solutions offer answers to multiple conditions of climate, soil and

  educational requirements, because they provide a generic common pattern through a "Iego - like" model which offers flexibility, and allows the many kinds of activities the educational enterprise requires.

The conception of an open "System of Architectural Projects" in fact was a major step for FEDE, "The Foundation for the Construction and Furnishment of Schools", advancing forward the foundation's goal of establishing a sensible and cost efficient policy for the construction of educational facilities.

COMPARING THE COSTS OF CONSTRUCTION Of SCHOOL FACILITIES:

SECOND STEP TOWARDS OPTIMIZATION

• FEDE already has a "System of Architectural Projects" suited to the needs of

  educational programs, and also has the technical and administrative expertise to build schools.

• FEDE is not the only agency - government or private-, which builds schools.

• FEDE as the policy maker in the area of school facilities, needs to know if the System

  of Projects currently in use has to be modified in order to increase the actual "cost-benefit" relationship.

All the above, and also the current economic situation of the country forces the institution to keep looking for cost effectiveness, and to show that the financial resources are invested optimally.

VARIABLES OF INVESTIGATION

DEPENDENT VARIABLE:

The quantitative unit of this study is: THE INVESTMENT COST FOR ONE SCHOOL which is defined as:

The final result of the chain of operations and processes involved in the construction of a school, measured in Bolivares/square meter and further subdivided in:

• NET COST OF INVESTMENT

• GROSS COST OF INVESTMENT

NET COST OF INVESTMENT;

CONCEPT:

Net Cost by Sq. meter:

Money directly spent in the execution of the construction works for a school, according to what is stated in contractual documents such as: Construction Works Calculations, Contract Agreements, Budgets and Final Bills. This concept "excludes" other expenses such as Soil studies, Social studies, Bidding Processes, Exterior Construction Works and Non budgeted additional Works. All these items will be codified according to the venezuelan construction codes (COWMEN).

GROSS COST OF INVESTMENT:

CONCEPT;

Gross Cost by Sq. meter.

Money directly spent in the execution of the agreed construction works according to what it is stated in documents as: Construction Works Calculations, Contract Agreements, Budgets and Final Bills. . This concept "includes" other expenses such as Soil. Studies. Social Studies, Bidding Processes, Exterior Construction Works and Non budgeted additional Works. All these items will be codified according to the national construction codes (COVENIN).

INVESTIGATION VARIABLES

Independent Variables;

• These are the different causes which could affect the Cost of investment of any school, for example:

• CONSTRUCTIVE SYSTEM (STRUCTURE'S COSTS OF THE SYSTEM)

• DURABILITY OF CONSTRUCTIVE MATERIALS AND ELEMENTS

• TOPOGRAPHICAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE SELECTED CONSTRUCTIVE SYSTEM

• TIME SPENT FOR THE PRELIMINARY WORKS AND STUDIES

• TIME SPENT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION WORKS

• LOCATION (URBAN. SUBURBAN, RURAL)

• CONTRACTING AGENCY (NATIONAL. STATE OR MUNICIPAL LEVEL)

• COST OF PRELIMINARY WORKS AND STUDIES

• OPERATIONAL COSTS OF THE CONTRACTING AGENCY

• UNFORSEEN COSTS

HYPOTHESIS SYSTEM:

Methodological Justification:

Hypothesis testing is a method of aiming at possible solutions by testing them first in an "hypothetical way" through the study of a sample, or a portion of a total given universe. In this particular case hypothesis testing is a tool which offers the following advantages:

• Enables the precise definition of the problems under study by using previous experiences and knowledge gathered by the Foundation and its technical staff.

• Allows to direct the data gathering process.

• Enables to use adequate data gathering instruments relevant to the investigation.

OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS #1:

In a sample of 40 schools that were built in the last 15 years:

The Net investment Cost of Construction (Bs./Sq, mt) for ever; school and every state agency, will be the same throughout equivalent constructive systems.

OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS #2:

In a sample of 40 schools that were built in the last 15 years:

The Gross investment Cost of Construction (Bs./Sq.mt), for every school and every state agency, will not be the same throughout equivalent constructive systems, it will fluctuate along with the addition to the Net Investment Cost, of every expense caused by the following factors:

• Preliminary Costs (PC): Such as the expenses caused by Architectural Project, Costs of Hiring the Preliminary Studies Required to start the actual construction process.

• Operational Costs (OC): Expenses caused by the operation of the constructing state agency_

• Unforeseen Costs (UC): Construction expenses which can not be foreseen and budgeted but were actually spent during the construction process.

OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS #3:

In a sample of 40 schools that were built in the last 15 years,

The Net investment Cost of Construction (Bs./Sq. mt) for every school and every state agency, will be proportional (directly or inversely) to the projected durability_of the materials and elements used in the specific constructive system.

OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS #4:

In a sample of 40 schools that were built in the last 15 years:

The Net Investment Cost of Construction (./sq,_mt) for every school and every state agency will be proportional (directlv or inversely) to the compliance to the curricular requirements established by_the Ministry of Education at the time of the construction works.

OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS #5:

In a sample of 40 schools that were built in the last 15 years:

The Net Investment Cost of Construction (Bs./Sq. mt) for every school and every state agency, will be proportional (directly or inversely) to the compliance of the functional requirements established at the time of the construction works, by FEDE as the agency in charge of the educational facilities construction policies.

HYPOTHESIS SYSTEM;

HYPOTHESIS TESTING #1

The Net Investment Cost (Bs./Sq,mt), will be equal in equivalent constructive systems. In order to accept or reject this hypothesis we must compare the Net Construction Costs of schools constructed by :

HYPOTHESIS TESTING #2

The Gross investment Cost of Construction (Bs./Sq. mt), will not be the same throughout equivalent constructive systems,

In order to accept or reject this hypothesis we must compare:

THE ACTUAL NET INVESTMENT COST

vs.

THE ACTUAL GROSS INVESTMENT COST

for every school and every state agency, and check the variation among different state agencies and constructive systems, as they are registered on the final bills and contractual documents of the construction works.

HYPOTHESIS TESTING #3

The Net Investment Cost will be proportional to the projection of durability of the constructive materials and elements used according to the requirements of the particular constructive system.

In order to accept or reject this hypothesis we must compare:

PROJECTED DURABILITY vs. REAL DURABILITY (checked on site)

HYPOTHESIS TESTING #4

The Net Investment Cost will be proportional to the compliance of the curricular requirements established by law at the time of the construction. In order to accept or reject this hypothesis a double comparison is needed according to the following:

4.1 Number and kind of didactical spaces on schools constructed by

4,2 Net Cost of Investment for schools must be compared and classified according to the state agency responsible for the construction and their degree of compIiance

HYPOTHESIS TESTING #5

The Net Investment Cost will be proportional to the compliance of the functional requirements established by FEDE.

In order to accept or reject this hypothesis, the actual Net Costs of investment of every school must be compared and classified according to the state agency responsible for its construction, and its' degree of compliance of the requirements.

PROCEDURES FOR HYPOTHESES TESTING

Hypotheses 1,2,4 and 5 can be tested through the detailed study of the documentary information stated next:

• Complete Projects, meaning a set of blueprints and measurements calculations,

• Final Bills and Detailed Receipts of construction Works, including those for additional non budgeted works,

• Area Programs and curricular plans according to Ministry of Education and FEDE requirements.

• Functional Requirements for Schools: Tables and Indexes for School Buildings.

The third hypothesis, "durability" can be tested by obtaining data "on site" about the actual situation of the different materials and elements, as they are now in the actual school facility.

SAMPLE DESIGN

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The UIA working group "educational and cultural spaces" met in Jerusalem from 22 to 26 of May 2000.

During the meeting key lectures as well as lectures by the UIA delegates and by the Israeli architects were presented on the subject of the meeting “the high school beyond the year 2000". After discussion of the lectures. conclusions and recommendations were formulated. These are presented in this paper.

The progressive liberation of mankind effects tremendous changes in the structure of society, which is expressed in democratization, individualization and freedom and openness of mind,

The rapid development of society and technology causes fundamental changes in the division and use of manpower.

We mention!

The young people who form an important factor in the progress of development and who take a substantial part in the vital decision-making process. the need for lifelong learning in order to continue to participate in the work force. the diminishing need of manpower to remain or to increase the standard of living. which allows for a subtantial amount of free time spending.

In order to meet new demands innovative learning systems have to serve the community.

Being aware of the need to create a new inspiring environment with spatial solutions adapted to these innovative learning systems we have formulated the following points

1. a dialogue between architects, providers of building resources. teachers. pupils. parents and citizens must be established as a starting point of the high school planning process.

2. locating the high school in the urban center of the community will provide easy accessibility. encourage intensive use of the school by the community and will create a real spiritual community center which will be used 24 hours a day. a center which will be a source of pride for all.

3. efficient use of resources for high school can be achieved by the optimal utilization of learning spaces. These spaces should be suited to known teaching patterns. and be adaptable to unknown and changing teaching methods, A variety of sizes of spaces is one way to achieve this object.

4. the high school has to become a place for living, learning and recreation and will contain multi-function space for acting display of art, performing music and for sport.