Design For Deconstruction - US Environmental Protection Agency

OVERVIEW DESIGN FOR DISASSEMBLY
34
The master plan for the school consists of four buildings
organized around a courtyard as shown in figure 5.2.
These include north and south classroom buildings, a
library/administration building, and a multipurpose building.
Phase I, the south half of the development, is under
construction and due to be completed in August of 2006.
The buildings are one story slab-on-grade with wood frame
construction. The school includes extensive daylighting
and energy efficiency measures to reduce energy use. A
photovoltaic system on the roof is sized to produce all the
electricity the school will consume over the course of a year
(a grid-tied net-zero design).
Design for Adaptability
Chartwell’s typical class size is extremely small, 8-10 students
per class. As a result, the 600 square foot classrooms
are much smaller than the 960 square foot classrooms
found in a typical California public school, which are
designed hold as many as 30 students. Even though the
school’s teaching model currently relies on small class sizes,
their teaching needs and methods may change over time,
and they may want larger classrooms at some point in the
future. To accommodate such change, the interior walls
between classrooms are non-structural partitions that can be
removed without compromising the structural performance
of the building.
In addition, the interior shear walls (primarily along
hallways) have been “over” designed, so additional openings
can be cut into the walls in the future. This will allow the
school (or some future owner) to add a reasonable number
of additional interior doors and windows in the future,
without needing to add strength to the existing