FEATURE FOCUS: INTELLIGENT BUILDING DESIGN
Safeguarding children through
Intelligent Building Design HANNAH GAINS, National Education Manager at Net Zero Buildings, shares her insights. A
positive learning environment is critical in supporting all children to excel. However, without safe and secure surroundings, a child’s ability to learn is at risk. From the Government’s recent introduction of The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, aiming to protect children and raise standards in education, it’s clear that making improvements across the learning environment is desperately needed. One way to achieve this is to work towards an intelligent building design, which will be a key contributor to changing the physical learning environment for the better.
As fundamentals of an optimum learning environment, schools should pay close attention to perfecting the lighting, ergonomics, acoustics, air quality and air temperature, when thinking about enhancing safeguarding for children.
Increase natural lighting and reduce blind spots
Natural daylight is effective for providing better learning conditions and health in schools as it
promotes Vitamin D generation and regulation of the body’s circadian rhythm – essentially the body’s internal clock. Efficient daylighting can enhance mental performance, decrease depression, improve sleep, and help treat Seasonal Affective Disorder. Therefore, schools should focus on implementing strategies which will increase natural lighting throughout the school buildings such as large elevations of frameless or slim framed glazing solutions. Maximising the flow of natural light will increase a sense of nature within the classroom and help to create a feeling of space and calm to aid student learning. When planning window configurations for schools, architects should ensure they conform to building performance requirements to enable their buildings to be functional for many years to come. To futureproof the building, glazing solutions can also enhance the flow of air, key for communal areas, including sliding glass doors, opening windows and opening roof lights.
From an architectural perspective, eliminating dark areas will result in better visibility of pupils, allowing safeguarding leads to observe and
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monitor their students and other school users easily.
Focusing on visibility should also include putting measures in place to reduce security blind spots created by recesses and alcoves. For those blind spots that cannot be avoided, strategically placed CCTV cameras can be a viable solution to make a school feel safe and risk-free, as well as acting as a deterrent for bullying and providing crucial evidence, if ever needed for an investigation. Implementing secure access controls, such as cards or passes, ensures that only authorised people can be in the school, as well as keep children safe who are a flight risk.
Design for flexibility
Traditionally, classrooms tended to look the same using rows of static wooden desks and chairs facing the blackboard at the front of the room. Schools opted for a one size fits all approach, no matter the pupil. However, where safety and wellbeing are concerned, it is imperative to build efficient classrooms designed to specific learning needs so that students feel comfortable and supported at all times.
February 2025
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