Architect 2014-03.pdf

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PRODUCTS
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE MARCH 2014 WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM
IN CONTEXT
A Continuing Education
THE QUEST TO CREATE THE OPTIMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IS
BRINGING FORCES OUTSIDE THE CURRICULUM INTO CLASSROOM DESIGN.
Text by Jennifer Brite
Edited by Hallie Busta
K–12 CLASSROOMS HAVE EVOLVED significantly
from the quaint one-room schoolhouses of yore,
as academics, administrators, and architects try
to grasp how design impacts learning.
“We’re re-learning how to build schools
that are efficient while being comfortable and
appropriate for learning,” says Lindsay Baker,
a doctoral candidate in building science at the
University of California, Berkeley, and author of
a 2012 report on the history of classroom design.
A 2012 study by U.K.–based design firm IBI
Nightingale with the University of Salford, also
in the U.K., found that the confluence of classroom
design features, such as room orientation,
HVAC, acoustics, and furniture, can enhance or
set back a student’s academic progress by up to
25 percent during the course of a year.
The report also found that allowing teachers
to easily rearrange furniture for different
activities was a key factor in improving student
learning. Additionally, a 2008 study of college
students by Grand Valley State University in
Allendale, Mich., found that sitting on exercise
balls during class helped them pay attention.
The takeaway for designers? Furniture
should be specified during design development,
says Caroline Paradise, who heads research and
development at IBI Nightingale. “If you get it
wrong, it can have a lasting effect on the performance
of the students, and it is difficult and
costly to change,” she says.
Furniture makers are taking note. Last
March, Smith System released the Flavors Noodle
desk chair, which lets students tilt left, right, forward,
and backward in their seats. Herman Miller
has designed classroom furniture that moves
away from the “traditional, lecture-based [teaching]
approach,” says Jeff Vredevoogd, director of
the company’s education seating business. Its
2010 Everywhere Table, for example, comprises a
kit of tabletop shapes and leg styles that can be
mixed and matched in multiple configurations.
“More and more, one design doesn’t fit all,”
Vredevoogd says.
The Evolution of Classroom Design in the U.S.
1870 to 1914
The Second
Industrial
Revolution
1929
The Great
Depression
begins.
1939 to 1945
Word War II
1954
Public schools in
the U.S. begin
desegregation.
1973
Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act
calls for schools
to accommodate
individuals with
disabilities.
1998
The U.S. Green
Building Council
(USGBC) launches
LEED.
2007
USGBC introduces
LEED for Schools.
New education
mandates and laws
banning child labor
rapidly increase
school enrollments,
standardizing facility
design. Classroom
layouts maximize floor
space with instructors
lecturing from raised
platforms and pupils
sitting at fixed desks
many rows deep
(diagram shown, left).
Architects, including Eliel
Saarinen and Richard
Neutra, join education
reformers of the 1920s
and ’30s to soften the
utilitarian approach of
the previous decades.
Their daylit rooms offer
views outside with desks
arranged in groups rather
than in rows.
The postwar population
boom spawns new
construction as schools
race to meet growing
infrastructure needs,
often sacrificing the
design innovation of
the past decade to build
quickly and affordably.
Traditional row-andcolumn
layouts are
challenged again in the
’60s and ’70s. Openeducation
classrooms
are free of walls and
students are grouped by
subject matter and skill
as teachers move freely
among them.
The postwar building
boom ends and many
districts struggle as
rosters and funding
dwindle. Energy
conservation gains
ground. Schools opt
for electric lighting and
mechanical conditioning,
often closing off large
windows in the hopes
of saving energy.
Renewed environmental
awareness causes school
districts to prioritize
energy efficiency and
indoor air quality in new
facilities.
Modern classrooms
integrate flexible spaces
and evolving technology
into energy-efficient and
crime-deterring design.