Design for life

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Mairi Johnson, of Partnerships for Schools, looks at the role good looking design can play in creating learning environments that are more than just buildings

Building Schools for the Future, the Academies and Primary Capital Programmes are about so much more than just providing new school buildings. For all of us working at Partnerships for Schools – the delivery organisation for the full suite of capital programmes – the outcome we strive for is schools that are safe, welcoming and inspiring places to learn. These places are not simply for school age children, but somewhere that reaches out to – and has relevance for – all members of the community. All of these capital programmes, seeing investment of around £8.5bn into our schools every year, offer a chance for local authorities, schools and the private sector to work together to use this funding as a catalyst for wider regeneration and renewal.

People can sometimes have a rather simplistic view of what drives us as architects, believing that it is all about wanting to stamp our identity on the landscape with an iconic building, a real statement of the architect's vision and flair. That's a rather unfair and outmoded view though, with the real spur for us being the creation of an environment that fulfils, and hopefully exceeds, the needs and desires of its occupants.

Nowhere is this more true than with programmes such as BSF, Academies and PCP. Here we are privileged to be involved in what are probably the largest and most ambitious school building projects since Victorian times. Ultimately, our legacy should not be measured in bricks and mortar, but by the difference new and revitalised schools make to young people, to teachers and to communities. It is here that design, often in ways barely visible to those not in the know, can make huge inroads in changing behaviour and attitudes: Wide corridors? Cuts down on lesson change congestion, which can lead to pushing, shoving and fighting. Glass-fronted staff rooms throughout the building? Passive supervision is shown to reduce anti-social behaviour. Easily accessible entrance? Shouts out to local people, this building is for all, not just pupils.

So design plays an absolutely central role to the delivery, and longer-term success, of BSF, Academies and PCP, and I think it's fair to say that it is an element that has become even more important – and certainly ever more debated – over the past 12 months. During this period, BSF has come under intense public scrutiny by various bodies and committees; we have launched new guidance, initiatives and processes; and as an organisation, we have extended the scope of our activities after the Department for Children, Schools and Families asked us to add the management and delivery of the PCP, Targeted and Devolved Capital to our existing portfolio of Academies and BSF. So here are some of the design highlights – and challenges – from recent months.

By the end of January 2010, 125,000 pupils were benefiting from BSF investment in 146 schools across England, and 32 PCP pathfinder projects had also been completed. It is still relatively early days to assess the educational impact of these new and refurbished schools, which probably accounts for why there is still so much emphasis on critiquing design. And I think we have emerged from this debate rather well. The National Audit Office report into BSF – which was scrutinised subsequently by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee – stated that the BSF programme was being well managed, that PfS was keeping costs under control, and that BSF schools have been built to a higher specification and space standards than previous schools.

Our 2009 Excellence in BSF Awards showcased some of the inspiring designs for new, remodelled and sustainable schools being delivered through the BSF and Academies programmes, providing food for thought for anyone who assumes that large-scale capital programmes such as BSF simply churn out identikit schools. Instead, the design judging panel was impressed by the variety on display, showing how design is responding both to place and to the vision of school leaders and pupils.

We are not, though, complacent about the quality of design, and as the programme gathers momentum, we are continuing to learn lessons and share what works well – and what doesn't – with those just starting out on their projects. Challenging design and designers is a crucial part in achieving successful schools, and it is one area where school building is leading the way for the public sector. In May last year, we (along with DCSF and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) launched the Minimum Design Standard (MDS) to ensure that only the best designs make it into construction, leaving bidders under no illusion that designs failing to meet the standard will be sent back to the drawing board.

Some have seen this as an admission that design quality was not high enough, but that's a rather partial view, which doesn't reflect the real impetus for the MDS.

What we are trying to create are the circumstances in which architects can achieve their best work – and clear information and expert support associated with the new MDS process will help them to do this.

Sample school designs are now assessed against 10 clearly stated criteria before being graded. For the first time, educationalists sit alongside built environment experts on the review panel so that both the focus on educational outcomes and the impact on students and teachers are core to design discussions.

So how has the MDS been received by architects and the wider BSF community? Is it seen as another hurdle to clear, or a useful tool to achieving high quality design? In my experience, speaking with a range of stakeholders from reviewers and architects, to schools and local authority officials – the overwhelming verdict is that the MDS gives greater clarity to the process. All parties know what they need to do, and how it will be assessed. The pilot with local authorities in procurement in BSF Wave 5 and beyond continues until the end of 2010, but from the architects' perspective, they value the opportunity to present their designs to the panel directly and to engage in discussion with them face to face, and local authorities feel that the more rigorous process gives them greater confidence to explain – and defend – their decisions to the construction industry later on.

And what are we learning so far? Again, the process is ongoing but initial trends suggest that if designers focus on the big issues that crop up time and time again – making sure that buildings face the right way to maximise natural light, that sources of energy are properly considered from the outset, and that designers think about the place of the school in its community – then they fare better at the hands of the review panel.

Undoubtedly one of most pressing challenges for the design community is how we can create more sustainable schools. We don't have all the answers, but early BSF, Academies and PCP schools, together with the findings of the Zero Carbon Task Force published in January, are helping to focus our attention and learning on this most knotty of issues. And with schools accounting for around 2% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, with 9.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted annually by schools in England, we have to put our learning into practice right away, acknowledging that we can fine tune and update as we go.

PfS is responsible for putting into action one of the first actions from the sustainable schools report – making energy display meters, which provide real-time information about the amount of electricity consumed, available free of charge to primary and secondary schools nationwide. Being delivered in partnership with British Gas, the £12m meter scheme aims to help change pupils' behaviour and demonstrate how small changes in their actions – turning off lights, not leaving computers on standby – can make a big difference. As well as helping schools to reduce their electricity consumption by 10-15%, it is estimated that it could save an average 900-pupil secondary school more than £3,000 a year on fuel bills alone.

While the energy display meter initiative puts schools and pupils in the driving seat, there are more questions and a lot more work for us all to do if we are to move closer to our goal of zero carbon schools. The role of the Client Design Advisers will be key to helping to deliver greener and more sustainable schools, and at present, we are working closely with CABE and the Royal Institute of British Architects to up-skill and train CDAs so that they can offer local authorities high quality sustainability advice throughout the lifetime of their BSF project.

The challenges for us all on this journey are numerous. We must overcome competing agendas such as how we balance the need for good acoustics with the desire for natural ventilation, and we must instil in contractors that equipment vital in reducing schools' carbon footprints are not sacrificed to cut costs. PfS will therefore do all it can to challenge contractors, to monitor operational schools, and to share the lessons learned.

After looking back, I want to finish by looking forward to some of the design areas we will be focusing on in coming months. PfS is now managing the Space for Personalised Learning project, delivered by a consortium led by DEGW/Davis Langdon. This exciting action research project is working with 10 pilots in primary and secondary schools across England, exploring how the physical environment can evolve to create better spaces that support personalised learning. West Hill Primary in London, one of the first pilots to near completion, shows how a typical Victorian school hall that many of us remember from our own school days can be transformed into a light, bright and exciting space where you can immediately sense that it is a more inspiring, creative and fun place to learn.

Design is also one of the main strands of the second procurement review, which continues this year, looking at ways in which we can reduce both timescales and costs in BSF still further. In addition to examining the possibility of a centralised Pre-Qualification Questionnaire process, the best way to procure ICT, and how all parties can align timetables to speed up decision-making, we are also looking at sampling design in a different way. It is a legal requirement to test both the bidder and the bid, and so sampling designs will remain a key feature of the BSF procurement process. Options to be explored include the use of exemplar samples or reducing the number of sample designs required to one PFI school, with a schedule of rates for the Design & Build scheme.

Design is all around us everyday, and good design makes such a difference to our lives. I am therefore looking forward to getting stuck in as my role as Strategic Director of Design for PfS to ensure that good design remains absolutely central to what we are setting out to achieve with these once-in-a-generation programmes.

More information:
Partnerships for Schools: www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk
Minimum Design Standard: www.cabe.org.uk/design-review/schools
Energy Display Meter: www.teachernet.gov.uk/energydisplaymeter
Zero Carbon Task Force final report: publications.teachernet.gov.uk default.aspx?
PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF-00111-2010
Space for Personalised Learning: www.space4pl.org