Education Buildings Journal
centre, and external space, these holistic learning bases can create a sense of identity, community and progression.
As students move through the school, a stacked schooling system can also allow each curriculum area to have a core cluster of learning spaces within the building. Students are able to form a clear identity, display their work, and showcase career opportunities. Similarly the staff are easily able to share practice.
Circulation must obviously provide safe and inclusive access and emergency escape, but also needs to provide comfortable vertical and horizontal fl ow with opportunities for external outlook, informal group work and connectivity. In order that students feeling safe and secure, passive supervision through distributed staff bases is needed. Toilets must be evenly distributed on every fl oor for ease of access.
Building in fl exibility is challenging due to the vertical stacking of accommodation and the need to retain appropriate fi re compartmentation. However, the use of a typical concrete frame structure with fl at slabs and minimal load-bearing partitions does allow for potential internal replanning.
A variety of room sizes and shapes provided on every fl oor will encourage alternative classroom layouts and a natural diversity of teaching spaces. Flexible use of specialist
spaces with a standardised Furniture, Fittings and Equipment (FFE) installation that can be used in different ways will support varied timetabling requirements. This fl exibility will allow for the curriculum to develop, the timetabling of facilities to start on the lower fl oors and expand up the building, and allow for a school population to grow over time.
These new learning environments may be responding to physical and economic constraints but they offer a fantastic
“Not only does the school become a small city but the city becomes an exceedingly large school”
Space and Learning by Herman Hertzberger 2008
opportunity to integrate and permeate education into the heart of a city, implement and progress new ways of learning, and prepare students for the future. A beacon of learning in the city.
Helen Taylor will be speaking at Education Estates on 16 October.
The height of a school building is constrained more by practical and pedagogical issues than structural or planning constraints.
8 Image of SHaW Futures Academy Courtesy of Wates
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