What will today's schools require to accommodate tomorrow's students and technologies?
How will future teaching and learning styles translate into today's school facilities?
What will tomorrow's learning spaces look like?
What should be included in schools of the future?
These and other questions plague educational administrators as they plan and design today's schools with an eye on ensuring that facilities provide flexible and conducive learning environments well into the future.
American School & University posed these questions to some of the nation's leading educational architecture firms, asking them to provide one idea or concept that schools of the 21st century should include or consider. What follows are 10 ideas anticipated to play an important role in the design of future school facilities:
Idea: Classroom for Facilitation
Submitted by: Stephen Friedlaender, FAIA; Mario Torroella, AIA; Cindy I.M. Stearns; HMFH Architects, Cambridge, Mass.
With the 21st century almost here, it is sobering to realize that architects and educators have yet to generate a concept for the classroom of the future that looks much different from the classroom as we have known it for the previous 100 years. The buzzphrase of the '90s has been that communications technology has freed the secondary-school classroom teacher to become a facilitator rather than an information provider. However, there is little evidence to suggest that the much-anticipated paradigm shift in the role of the typical teacher has had any significant impact upon the way classrooms are designed and furnished.
A fundamental change in curriculm delivery at the secondary level easily can be accomplished with no increase in room size. Instead, it simply needs a fresh approach to classroom furniture and layout. Those who doubt the vital relevance of furniture to pedagogy would do well to consider the impact of the Harkness table at Phillips Exeter and other leading private secondary schools, where all classroom instruction takes place around large oval tables that can accommodate 12 students and one instructor. These tables have encouraged and supported the notion of the teacher as the facilitator for the past 70 years. The Harkness classroom, in spite of its age, may well point the way to the future of classroom design.
The problem, of course, is that no public school system can afford the 12:1 student-teacher ratio that this type of instruction requires. However, with the coming of local- and wide-area computer networks, the Internet, distance learning and other forms of electronic information retrieval and dissemination, it should be possible for students in public schools to begin to experience the kind of classroom facilitation that, until now, only has been available to students in elite private schools.
One idea, the classroom for facilitation, uses the basic classroom, which fits comfortably into the familiar 28-foot by 32-foot rectangle. It contains a central discussion area for 12 to 14 students and one teacher surrounded by three 4-person student workstations and one teacher workstation, all of which might be separated from each other and from the main discussion area by half-height partitions or storage walls. When fully occupied, this classroom could accommodate a standard class of 24 students, half of whom would be engaged in a live discussion with the teacher or facilitator, while the other half would be working independently or in groups of four at the perimeter workstations. This type of classroom, when used for language and mathematics instruction, would eliminate the need for dedicated language labs or math labs. However, this concept is equally appropriate for English and social-studies classrooms. Time at the individual workstations would consist of writing, viewing, information retrieval and test-taking. While time in the discussion group would give every student the opportunity to find his or her own voice.
The essential idea is to combine the computer and video monitor with flexible two-person tables to create a classroom for facilitation that is within the budget of most schools.
Idea: Flexible Learning Environments
Submitted by: Daniel R. Mader, AIA, Fanning/Howey Associates, Indianapolis
Classroom design soon will be dramatically different from what we see in schools today. The evolution of the classroom will be driven by technological advances and changes in instructional approaches-influences that already are impacting the design of new and modernized schools. Even the term "classroom" will become a misnomer, as the space essentially will serve as a flexible learning environment.
The most basic change will be in overall size. Classrooms, or learning environments, typically will be at least 1,400 to 1,500 square feet, as opposed to the more common 800 to 900 square feet. Operable walls between classrooms will allow for larger spaces when needed. Expansion of space will be critical to support a varied, interactive approach to instruction from kindergarten through high school.
Instruction will move away from the traditional, lecture-style approach in which teachers stand at the front of the classroom and address students seated at rows of desks. Instead, students will move from one learning station to another, working in teams, pairs or independently. While students work on various projects, teachers and aides will move around the room as facilitators, providing one-on-one or small-group instruction.
This sort of animated, interactive approach to education not only requires more space, but also merits built-in flexibility. Furniture, equipment, and cabinetry and storage options will be portable-able to move from room to room or work in a variety of configurations. Built-in infrastructure will be simplified and will include advanced power systems, flexible lighting and sinks. Teacher workspace will move out of the classroom to central team-planning areas and offices.
The infusion of technology into the classroom is another catalyst for change in the physical environment. Computers will be integral to classroom instruction, eliminating the need for separate computer labs. Portable carts will feature built-in computers, and many students will carry laptop computers throughout the day-perhaps even at the elementary-school level.
Though far more advanced in terms of capability, technology will be much more streamlined and integrated. Overhead and slide projectors, tape and CD players, VCRs, television sets-even built-in monitors-will disappear and be replaced by integrated multimedia systems. Classrooms will discard chalkboards or markerboards, replacing them with large, built-in screens-essentially media or presentation walls.
Teachers and students will be able to write on the media walls, print from them and project onto them. Use of technology will become second nature, and these walls will be used for dynamic, multimedia instruction that today might require several different pieces of equipment and extensive time for set-up.
These giant screens also will bring the world to the classroom-someday enabling students in the United States to collaborate almost side-by-side with students from other schools, communities and countries, as well as with governments and industries. Classes will visit rain forests, deserts, oceans, cities-even space stations. Live projections of important, international news events, such as a presidential inauguration, will enable students to feel as if they were taking part in the event itself.
In the future, as respect and concern for the environment continue to grow, classrooms will house a variety of science and lab activities and projects. These will include aquariums, terrariums, and all sorts of natural exhibits and demonstration centers. Natural light will be essential in every classroom-windows and skylights will continue to be inherent to the design of each room.
While classrooms of the 21st century will become much more streamlined and efficient, they are not in danger of becoming bland, sterile spaces. Instead, they will engender more personalized instruction; greater interaction and communication; and a dynamic, exciting approach to learning.
Idea: Flexible Technology Areas
Submitted by: John J. Castellana, FAIA, TMP Associates, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
"Technology for the 21st century." We have all heard this phrase numerous times. But, what does it really mean? What characteristics are important in school planning to assure that students are being prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century? What tools do students need today to help them prepare for tomorrow? These are all questions that have been asked and answered in various ways.
Schools must be designed with flexibility in mind to allow for the rapidly changing world of information systems. The industrial-arts area has received much attention at the middle- and high-school levels. This specialty is moving away from the traditional shops to an area that fosters integrated learning in technology applications, mathematics and engineering science.
The design of an interactive technology area should respond to several objectives:
-Provide a stimulating, flexible environment to reinforce the district's commitment to integrated learning in technology, math and science.
-Foster teaming.
-Encourage the interactive use of emerging technologies as a design and simulation tool.
-Facilitate both the design of and hands-on prototype fabrication of projects.
-Serve as the symbolic focus of integrated curriculum at the school.
Consider locating the area prominently, such as near the front door. Also, display space can provide areas to show off student projects, with special lighting, and floor and ceiling finishes to reinforce the image.
Flexible lab areas should include movable workstations supported with proper utility service to facilitate a variety of explorations. These services can be housed in playful vertical kiosks that add a dynamic dimension to the space. A central work area for faculty will command a dramatic view of the entire teaching space. High ceiling spaces with controlled, glare-free natural light can provide an upbeat and stimulating interior environment and, at night, highlight the learning center to the community.
Idea: Generic Lab Module
Submitted by: Bob Schaeffner Jr., AIA, Payette Associates, Boston
Flexibility is a major concern for any science-lab facility. It can be accomplished by creating spaces that can be arranged to satisfy a variety of teaching and learning styles. One school exemplifies this approach in its creation of a multidisciplinary science center that contains a generic lab wing. Flexibility is achieved through the creation of 12 labs with six different configurations, designed to serve all potential users well. Specific department needs are met by two to four labs assigned for each department. In addition, support spaces, storage space, classrooms, lounges, library, and informal and formal conference areas are placed strategically for shared use.
Early programming and planning of this type of space should look beyond the required increased space to the issues of circular direction and anticipated trends in enrollments in science and environmental studies courses. The planning needs to accommodate the current science curriculum for the near term, but also needs to maintain maximum flexibility. Successful facilities for teaching in the sciences should anticipate changing needs among science disciplines and also fundamental changes in teaching of science during the life of the building.
A generic module is the key to flexibility. It consists of a 36-foot by 28-foot lab and a 12-foot by 28-foot support room. The lab's built-in services include computer network connections, electrical outlets mounted to the floor, wall-mounted electrical outlets and gas locations. Freeing floor space of utilities, with the exception of electricity, should allow for the following flexible layouts:
-Science lab A-Allows electrified benches but no computer networking capabilities.
-Science lab B-Allows electrified benches and computer networking capabilities; Tablet-arm chair-Individual seating and teaching space; Seminar-Interactive and group-learning space; Lecture-Front-focused teaching space; Computer lab-Computer networking teaching space.
The biggest challenge in a project of this scope is to achieve organizational flexibility, which will reflect anticipated changing needs without compromising the present one. The different lab layouts should be developed by investigating present needs and meeting with all occupants of the new facility.
A generic lab module will allow organizational flexibility of a science facility, which will serve present and future needs.
Idea: Integration of Community and School
Submitted by: John M. Padgett, AIA, CSI, CDT, The Odle McGuire & Shook Corporation, Indianapolis
Should we have grand schools built in the center of our towns and cities? While this probably will not happen, there is historical precedence. Throughout the ages, people have built splendid palaces, cathedrals, and more recently, courthouses in the center of communities as a symbol of what is important to them. As societies have become more complex, multiple focuses have developed. Lifelong learning and education have become increasingly important as a focus.
This emphasis on education is affecting the design of educational facilities. This especially is apparent in high schools that contain a multitude of programs in a complex environment that must involve both students and adults. Two recent trends have stimulated this change.
Education has become a strategic means of competing in a global marketplace, a necessary ingredient in staying current with evolving technology, and a way of enhancing quality of life. The increasing demand for technology has created a need for continuous education. Further, as jobs change, people must develop new skills to get new jobs and to maintain them. Education through high school or even college is no longer enough-we must continue to educate ourselves.
Simultaneously, the K-12 education system has been held increasingly accountable to the taxpaying public. Necessary capital expenditures for technology and facilities are scrutinized by all levels of government. In most states, some type of mechanism is in place that allows a community to stop these types of expenditures. Therefore, it is becoming important to develop consensus and support in the community before attempting any major project. This is seen by many as a positive step forward.
Involving the community in the planning of school facilities has long been promoted by educational planners and architects, but it did not always happen. Now, it must occur or the project cannot proceed. This involvement in the planning of facilities will strengthen commitments to education and to our communities.
Together, the increasing emphasis on lifelong learning and on community involvement have a tremendous impact on how schools are planned and designed. Parents are becoming involved in numerous areas of their children's education, not just sports and band.
Today's forward-thinking schools house adult-education programs, public libraries, web-site hubs, computer training facilities, public meeting rooms, radio and TV production studios, recreational swimming pools, performing-arts facilities, art studios, athletic training facilities, etc. Schools are built in parks and other shared-use settings. These are in addition to the increasing number of athletic activities offered.
Schools must accommodate these new demands and still operate cost effectively. They must be sensitive to issues of security, liability and safety, while still presenting a user-friendly environment for education. It is not an easy task, but the opportunities are worth the challenge.
A program-driven, process-oriented approach to designing new schools for the 21st century involves students, the community, the professional staff, the administration and the board in a collaborative planning process that focuses on educational and community goals. Extensive programming is done through multiple meetings with community focus groups. Although time-consuming, this process produces a clear program of needs, as well as a consensus of vision between the user groups and the community. Barriers of opposition are broken down through compromise and enlightened knowledge.
This usually results in the community supporting the project, often expanding the scope to fulfill community needs. The cooperative attitude often spreads to local governmental units that may share the cost of a pool, a library, or even promote the construction of a school in a public park with shared facilities. The planning and design process becomes a catalyst.
Idea: Real-World Campus
Submitted by: Paul D. Winslow, FAIA, The Orcutt/Winslow Partnership, Phoenix
The learning environment is changing dramatically. Traditional methods of teaching, individual classrooms and a standard curriculm for all students are fading. They are being replaced with new concepts in learning, such as the academy approach, where schools are broken down into interest-specific groupings, or a campus is designed into even smaller, more personal and identifiable elements. Combine the ideas found in both of these concepts into a larger design that also establishes a type of micro-society, and a new comprehensive strategy in educational design presents itself.
A real-world campus provides opportunities to implement the philosophies of these new learning concepts, as well as permits education to become more in context with real life. It creates an environment for learning, for responsibility and sharing of resources, and reinforces the idea that learning is a life-long endeavor.
In a broader sense, the real-world campus follows the principles that apply to city and urban planning. The campus borrows the smaller student groupings and then applies the "house" of the middle-school concept as a foundation. This approach relates to the scale of a typical neighborhood, putting groups-and students-in context with one another. By establishing an academic emphasis within each of these student grouping or houses, the campus creates, in effect, the equivalent of businesses in the real world. These real-world businesses provide services that might include graphics and reproduction, police or court services, or broadcasting and newspaper publishing. By combining learning programs with outcome expectations, students contribute to the operation of the real-world campus and experience firsthand the relationship between learning and work.
Differing in its physical appearance from the traditional school environment, the real-world campus designs its academic houses in such a way that the learning program facilitates the creation of a product or service by students. These services or products are displayed in a retail-like setting and supported by back-of-the-house operations that provide the research, construction or consultation component of the business. For example, students developing a product in an industrial-technology house might seek marketing assistance from students in the general-business house, or product testing from a science or math house. In providing the service or product to the client, students bring the challenge to the classroom to create the solution.
Storefronts, displays, signage and ease of access are critical considerations in the success of this campus. Adaptability also is crucial, as it is in business, since service requirements, product development and delivery needs will change.
Though the real-world campus does not exist yet, it is a viable assimilation of current trends to define learning in the 21st century. The real-world approach stimulates the learning process, gives responsibility to students, offers the opportunity for success, and exemplifies the parallel of learning and living.
Idea: Schools as Community Resources
Submitted by: Philip A. Hodgin, AIA, RDG Bussard Dikis, Des Moines
Tax dollars need to be stretched more efficiently than ever before. City and school collaborative planning is a proven, fiscally responsible method for achieving more with less.
Anyone charged with planning districts for the 21st century should pursue strategic collaborations that consider the school building and site as a community resource. Doing so is a creative method to efficiently and effectively accomplish goals.
Cast away the notion that a school building must stand alone on an isolated site. Providing enclosure for the formal education of students is only one viable function for tomorrow. Instead, treat the school as an investment that is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
First, seek out the most logical community partners for the school site. These may be groups who have a vested interest in the well-being of a solid school-district investment and who share the need for well-designed, durable, large-group spaces. This may include educational agencies, community education providers, before- and after-day-care program providers, and scouting or social-service associations.
The next step is to boast proudly to the community the success of existing alliances and create a genuine interest among an extended group of less traditional, but equally viable school user groups, such as newly established churches, wellness or fitness providers, social- and human-service agencies, civic music or fine-arts associations, senior-adult daycare organizations, and congregate meal providers.
Consider inviting senior adults to participate as mentors, special readers or special one-on-one student buddies. Students observing an active meals-on-wheels distribution site would absorb an immediate sense of civic obligation.
Begin to think about creating space that might serve a full host of after-hours activities, including YMCA/YWCA collaborations; health-care clinics; small businesses that operate primarily at night, including mail sorting operations, telemarketing services, newspaper stuffing services, and adult education/university extension providers; public libraries; a neighborhood coffeehouse or ice-cream parlor.
Design and maintenance of these types of facilities must be evaluated differently than traditional school buildings. Multiple-group use requires more dedicated storage, careful choice of durable finish materials, HVAC sytems that can accommodate diverse fluctuations and moderate security measures. Also, the performance expectations of custodial staff must change. Buildings are no longer available for a three-month cleanup in the summer, and staff is required to facilitate room setups as many as seven to eight times a day per room in some situations.
Designing a school that welcomes the community onto campus will have a dramatically positive impact on students, teachers and the surrounding neighborhood. Measurable effects can include:
-Increased property values.
-Increase in school volunteerism.
-Decrease in school vandalism.
-Positive influence on school pride.
-Increased use of technology at the school site.
-Less absenteeism for students and staff.
-Increased demand for media resource materials.
-Increase in awareness of school/community needs.
Idea: School-Within-A-School
Submitted by: Jerry Lawrence, FAIA, Burr Lawrence Rising + Bates Architects, Tacoma, Wash.
Educational reform at the high-school level is underway across the United States. Efforts have focused on linking traditional academic elements with newer, student-centered active learning concepts. In addition, community access and lifelong learning are playing an increasingly important role in schools designed for the 21st century. Educators and architects are bringing to the programming process innovative methods for dealing with these new educational needs.
Architects have a unique opportunity to affect the learning process. Whether designing new facilities or renovating existing structures, architects must design innovative solutions using current knowledge and research on how students learn and ways communities interact with educational facilities. This requires, among other things, one to examine the way high schools have been designed in the past in order to determine what is needed for the future.
High schools today are complex learning communities. Educational facilities must be physical environments where innovative educators can create programs that address the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. A major trend in designing large high schools-approximately 1,600 students-is in the restructuring of the facility into smaller, more manageable units to best serve students. Schools must project a sense of caring and a feeling of common ownership to which students, staff and the community can relate. High schools are similar to cities, with their own social system, traditions and culture. Schools must provide innovative programs and a variety of service models.
The concept of school-within-a-school helps redefine a high-school organizational structure into a more personalized learning community responsive to student needs. This educational concept arranges the organizational plan into learning academies, pods or families of classrooms that are defined instructional modules supported by flexible teaching stations, centralized technology and science labs, project rooms, storage areas and staff offices. Each academy cluster is supported educationally by an interdisciplinary teaching team that encourages shared curriculum, study and research. This modified team-teaching approach requires closed study areas and joint-group activities. The cluster concept also is supported by more traditional program offerings of music, performing arts, fine arts, industrial technology, home and family life, and physical education that are more common to a traditional high-school curriculum.
Flexible multiuse spaces are a key to the high school of the 21st century. Flexible, adjustable design accommodates today's programs while expanding our vision of tomorrow.
Idea: Technology Integration
Submitted by: Gary G. Karst, AIA, Horst, Terrill & Karst Architects, Topeka, Kan.
It is quite apparent that technology in educational facilities has arrived, is here to stay and will continue to expand in hardware and infrastructure as we enter the 21st century. This expansion has occurred so rapidly in the past few years that aesthetics have taken a back seat to the maze of wires, cords and surface-mounted equipment.
Integration of these items into the fabric of the building has not kept up with the expanding development or quantity of technological equipment and infrastructure. While furniture manufacturers have done a decent job of developing designs that are sensitive to technology needs, fixed- and scientific-casework manufacturers have been slow in developing equipment that will accept technology gracefully.
In a recent university science building, a laboratory bench was developed that successfully integrated electronics with wet-lab elements. Electronic raceways are segregated from the wet infrastructure and are accessible for wiring modifications via lift-out panels. Monitors and experiment interfaces are elevated above the wet surfaces; keyboards and hard drives are located within the units, away from possible contact with chemical spills.
Interactive television classrooms often are afterthoughts when it comes to mounting the multitude of monitors around the room. Once again, integration of technology equipment with the architecture of the space translates a feeling that it is part of the building fabric; not a temporary afterthought.
Within the classroom, the TV monitor, computer/CPU, VCR, clock, telephone/intercom handset, speaker, call button, HVAC thermostat and fire alarm/strobe often are scattered throughout the room without consideration to aesthetics or flexibility for future upgrades. Future voice, data, video and power modifications usually are accommodated via surface-mounted conduit.
One solution is a communications module that combines all of the above elements into one location. Electrical connections easily can be accommodated via ceiling plenum access. The need to run conduit in the wall to each item is eliminated, and mislocation of terminal boxes during rough-in is avoided. Two electrical-raceway compartments on each side of the unit that easily are accessed via hinged doors provide convenient installation and flexibility to modify wiring in the future. Light switches also may be incorporated if the unit is located close to the entry doorway.
As more and more technology hardware and infrastructure is introduced and utilized by the educational community, planners continuously will be challenged to create environments that are flexible to change and to transcend high-tech capabilities into an aesthetic whole with the building fabric.
Idea: Transforming Instructional Spaces
Submitted by: Tammy S. Magney, AIA, James E. Rydeen, FAIA, Armstrong Torseth Skold & Rydeen, Minneapolis
"Breaking Ranks: Changing an American Institution," identifies six major themes for creating the high school of the 21st century-personalization, coherency, time and organization, technology, professional development and leadership. The focus is on providing what is best for the education of high-school students. Although the report addresses high schools, the same themes easily could apply to middle/junior-high schools and elementary schools.
One of the issues these themes address is the need to recognize and respond to the unique learning style of the individual student-not all students learn at the same pace, respond to the same educational delivery methodology, listen, think, read, react in the same way, or are at the same maturity level. Also, the staff have a variety of teaching styles-while one teacher may be best in a regular classroom grouping in a traditional classroom, another may excel in a flexible, open classroom environment, a large-group lecture or large-group interactive forum, while another may excel in a small-group situation.
The building design is a major factor in the degree of success of these themes. A major facility design concept for the 21st century school is to create the proper instructional spaces and learning environment for each student. These instructional spaces must be designed to reach out and respond to the learning style of the individual student, and provide a stimulating environment for the learning activities. Plus, these spaces must be designed to enhance the educational delivery process, which may include a variety of complex multimedia technologies, and respond to the strengths of each teacher.
The following three areas will enhance the teaching and learning process for reaching all students:
-Flexible team-learning areas are central areas that provide flexibility, adaptability and availability of space for creating a variety of student groupings in a supervised setting. They are used for individual work, studying, testing, tutoring, small-group learning activities, and even for periodically gathering a large group in a less-than-formal lecture atmosphere. The learning areas also may be a mini-technology center or sub-resource center. The success of these areas is enhanced when they become the center of a house, cluster or family, which usually are four to 12 classrooms.
-Flexible classrooms may or may not surround the learning areas. Wherever they are located, they provide opportunities for differing sizes of classes, for responding to the best teaching styles of an individual teacher, and for responding to changing curriculum trends and educational delivery methodology. Making the transition from the traditional departmental organization to an interdisciplinary grouping of teaching stations requires a variety of classroom spaces for small-, regular- and large-group activities.
-Forum rooms, in lieu of the typical lecture hall, provide an excellent format for assembling 50 to 150 students in a large group setting-for lecture and interactive dialogue between teacher and students, and perhaps more importantly, among the students themselves. They are patterned after the historic Roman forums, where public assemblies were held, and attendees voiced their thoughts and ideas.
The preface to "Breaking Ranks" states, "There are many themes throughout this work, but if one theme could be extracted that is overarching and paramount, it is a message that the high school of the 21st century must be much more student-centered and, above all, much more personalized in programs, support services and intellectual rigor." These themes are enhanced by providing flexible team-learning areas, flexible classrooms and forum rooms. With these facilities, the teacher's ability to reach all students will be enhanced, and the students will have spaces that provide a safe, nurturing, caring environment. Their individual learning styles will be enhanced in a variety of stimulating classroom environments.
