6 Step Approach to Good School Design
At Footprint Architects we recognise that good school design can have a positive impact on educational outcomes for children and young people. Successful school design can provide an uplifting learning environment, that can effectively support educational activities, whilst minimising operational burdens.
Recent research by the Royal Institute of British Architects RIBA has identified that a well designed primary school and secondary school classroom has been shown to explain a 16% increase in learning progress over a year… that’s equivalent to one years worth of pupil progress! Cost-effectiveness and a learning environment that has a positive impact upon pupils and staff can be mutually reinforcing.
1. Robust Feasibility Study
The most important design decisions are those made at the start of a school project. From trees to access, heritage to budget, every educational architecture project has its own unique opportunities and constraints. Through a considered feasibility study and masterplanning we can work to explore all of the different options and assess viability to reduce your risk and unlock the hidden potential.
2. Passive Design
Implementing the simplest low energy, passive design decisions from the outset helps ensure that schools energy consumption and carbon emissions are reduced. Footprint Architects adopt a fabric-first approach to all new school buildings that we design.
Enhancing the building fabric and airtightness to LETI or Passivhaus standards is a simple but highly effective measure in reducing energy consumption and in achieving Net Zero Carbon in Use. This low-tech approach ensures that the schools we create are easy to operate, have low running costs, are simple to maintain, and are healthy and comfortable environments to learn in.
Our Approach to Passive School Design
- Utilise existing trees to provide natural shading in the summer months
- Maximise airtightness and avoid thermal bridging to meet Passivhaus standards.
- Position windows to maximise heating from the sun in the winter
- Use thermal mass to store and slowly release heat in the winter
- Use thermal mass to keep the heat out in the summer
- Position the building to maximise shading and reduce the need for air conditioning or cooling in the summer
- Orientate the long side of the building to face the south, with minimal east-west facing windows to reduce prevailing wind chill and excessive summer heat gains
- Use fresh air to naturally ventilate a building
- Utilise existing trees to provide natural shading in the summer months
3. Natural Daylighting
An abundance of natural daylight, with minimal glare, can create an engaging and healthy learning environment. The use of natural daylighting can reduce the reliance on artificial lighting, improve pupil wellbeing, reduce energy consumption and help to achieve net zero carbon in operation.
The use of large windows down to floor level and glazed external doors directly from the classroom spaces increases natural lighting, whilst animating the building at child height, creating spaces that allows pupils to explore and connect with the outside. We also recommend the use of roof lights to provide north light, increase natural ventilation and offer greater privacy for the classrooms over windows in the facade.
4. Simple, Natural Ventilation
We advocate the providing simple, natural ventilation coupled with high ceilings to absorb stale air. School ventilation systems need to be simple to operate and quickly responsive to allow air quality in classrooms to be easily maintained.
5. Pupil Engagement
Engaging with pupils, teachers and end users at an early design stage ensures that needs and aspirations can be considered and integrated effectively within the scheme. This allows children a sense of ownership of their new school, prompting positive social interaction and increasing pupil engagement.
At Footprint Architects we run workshops with school’s at an early stage to discuss ideas and allow staff and pupils to feed into the design. We develop a digital model and use virtual reality headsets to enable pupils to walk through and experience their new classrooms before any work has started on site.
6. Simplicity and Flexibility
Simplicity is one of the most important qualities of good design, and critical to ensuring that school buildings are good value and easy to use. The easier buildings are to procure, construct, manage, repair, operate and maintain, the more likely they are to operate efficiently and effectively.
RIBA research has shown that providing a variety of flexible social and self-directed learning spaces, that enable students to breakout from the classroom, can have a positive impact on pupil engagement. Educational design lends itself to simple, regular and repeated layouts, offering schools flexibility for the future.
