More and more educators are being influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach to pedagogy, with its mantra of “environment as the third teacher”—an approach that gives Building Teams a responsibility to pay even closer attention to the special needs of today’s schools.
In addition to helping support the pedagogical aims of those owner institutions, Building Teams are also crafting new approaches to creating sustainable, high-performance K-12 schools. As school districts struggle to find the capital to build and maintain energy-efficient, healthy environments, K-12 project teams are developing strategies to help support high-performance educational facilities and stay on budget.
This approach begins with Building Teams taking an integrated approach where the architect, engineer, contractor, and building owner collaborate early on in the project and take a holistic approach to the design.
After reading this article, you should be able to:
- Discuss integrated design strategies that help make K-12 facilities more energy efficient and sustainable while reducing the cost of operations.
- Describe how current educational approaches inform school facility design, including sustainable design approaches. net-zero energy strategies, and the use of modular or prefabricated classrooms.
- List the various technologies, materials, and systems that create a learning tool out of building features and energymanagement systems. to design high-performance schools that emphasize student health and enhance classroom performance.
- Compare various design solutions and architectural features intended to encourage student interaction, physical activity and health, business community involvement, and the use of new technology in the classroom.
Take this free BDCuniversity course
Related Stories
| Apr 12, 2011
American Institute of Architects announces Guide for Sustainable Projects
AIA Guide for Sustainable Projects to provide design and construction industries with roadmap for working on sustainable projects.
| Apr 11, 2011
Wind turbines to generate power for new UNT football stadium
The University of North Texas has received a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to install three wind turbines that will feed the electrical grid and provide power to UNT’s new football stadium.
| Apr 8, 2011
SHW Group appoints Marjorie K. Simmons as CEO
Chairman of the Board Marjorie K. Simmons assumes CEO position, making SHW Group the only firm in the AIA Large Firm Roundtable to appoint a woman to this leadership position
| Apr 5, 2011
Zaha Hadid’s civic center design divides California city
Architect Zaha Hadid is in high demand these days, designing projects in Hong Kong, Milan, and Seoul, not to mention the London Aquatics Center, the swimming arena for the 2012 Olympics. But one of the firm’s smaller clients, the city of Elk Grove, Calif., recently conjured far different kinds of aquatic life when members of the City Council and the public chose words like “squid,” “octopus,” and “starfish” to describe the latest renderings for a proposed civic center.
| Apr 5, 2011
Are architects falling behind on BIM?
A study by the National Building Specification arm of RIBA Enterprises showed that 43% of architects and others in the industry had still not heard of BIM, let alone started using it. It also found that of the 13% of respondents who were using BIM only a third thought they would be using it for most of their projects in a year’s time.
