Fielding Partner, Isaac Williams: Creating Adaptive Capacity to Design a More Sustainable Tomorrow

Green Schools Catalyst Quarterly

The Path Forward

Why Whole School Sustainability Matters in a COVID-19 World

SPECIAL ISSUE September 2020

Creating Adaptive Capacity to Design a More Sustainable Tomorrow Isaac Williams

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The last six months have brought unprecedented change and disruption. The daily rituals of school – bus rides, walking to school, playing on the playground, band practice, raising your hand – have been transformed at warp speed. It seems like we went from “social distancing” to virtual learning overnight. We yearn to return to “normal,” but realize there is no going back. Rather, we must embrace a “new normal.” Will Richardson, Paul Krugman, and others are encouraging us to contemplate a “no normal” scenario; that is, COVID-19 is here to stay and so we must re-envision policies and infrastructure with an eye to the possibility of waves of closing and reopening school.

If you are reading this, you are likely part of the international community of school leaders, policymakers, designers, and others who are already planning for the effects of climate change and accept the fact that things have not been “normal” for a while, and that there may be no normal or average to prepare for, but instead a set of extremes to mitigate.

For many of us, this is not a dystopian view but rather a practical one, and an invitation to design greater capacity in school facilities and systems to absorb, respond, and adapt to disruptive change.

Schools face change not only from the natural environment, but also from local and global health, political, and economic crises, as our current times boldly illustrate. At the same time, schools face the enormous task of continuing to prepare students for rapidly changing economies and the ever-expanding literacies of the 21st century.

In this new context, where the only predictable element is change, the importance of sustainability and resilience have become resoundingly clear.

Communities must continue to design school campuses and retrofit existing ones to be sustainable.

Dr. Timon McPhearson’s definition of sustainability fits – to ensure that each campus plays its part in “managing resources in a way that guarantees welfare and promotes equity of current and future generations” (McPhearson, 2014). The inequities laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the importance and interdependence of the welfare

of current and future generations and equity. But communities must also design school campuses, and the school system as a whole, to be resilient – with the “capacity to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function” (McPhearson, 2014). Put simply, we must design to make the world better in the long-term but be prepared to absorb continued disturbance in the short-term.

To accomplish both, designers, school leaders, and policymakers can create greater adaptive capacity in the design of the physical infrastructure of schools.

Adaptive capacity brings together sustainability and resilience but goes one step further – it allows schools and school infrastructure to adjust and adapt as needed in response to changing conditions (Olsson, 2003). Whereas resilience allows schools and systems to survive and bounce back from change, adaptive capacity allows schools to transform in response to change – whether it be crisis or opportunity.

In Singapore, I am part of an international team of architects, environmental engineers, designers, and educators planning for adaptive capacity. Our team was charged by one of Singapore’s largest international independent schools to reimagine its 36-acre campus for the next 60 years and implement a series of upgrades that will help the school achieve its vision for learning in the short- and long-term. I want to share what we are learning and working toward. COVID-19 became a global pandemic just as we finished the campus’s master plan in March and started design on buildings for Phase 1. COVID-19 forced us to reexamine our core planning and design strategies with a sober view of just how much and how impactful change can be over 60 years, after seeing how much the pandemic changed our world in just six months.

This project is aspiring to meet Singapore’s highest sustainability standard – Green Mark Platinum – along with International Living Future Institute Zero Carbon and WELL certification. These three standards were chosen to ensure sustainable management of energy, water, and other resources; reduce long-term harm SPECIAL ISSUE September 2020 | 39

on the planet (Zero Carbon); and support the well-being of campus occupants (WELL) and the ecosystems that the campus is a part of (Green Mark).

The process of designing toward these standards has affirmed the importance and interdependence of well-being, environmental sustainability, and learning – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are learning that what is good for the planet, is good for human well-being, and what is good for human wellbeing allows for change. In reimagining the campus for the next 60 years, the team, along with the school, identified five key design strategies that go beyond sustainability standards and toward adaptive capacity.

Design Strategies for Adaptive Capacity at an International School in Singapore Flexibility through Variety A variety of space types can be found on the upgraded campus – enclosed, quiet spaces to support focus and reflection, learning spaces that support collaboration, and areas for handson projects. The organization and layout of these spaces offer teachers and students tremendous flexibility. Rather than carry out all activities in one classroom, which creates density, students and teachers can choose the right space at the right time, and cycle through them. During times when physical distancing is required, the learning environment will have the adaptive capacity to sustain the school’s inquiry-based learning model. Students in smaller numbers can cycle through the variety of learning spaces, separate from other groups. As needs or conditions change, learning spaces can be repurposed and used in new ways without significant investments in embodied energy or material.

Plan for Multiple Functions Now and in the Future Land and resources are precious, particularly in Singapore, so whatever is designed and built should maximize usefulness. One example of this strategy is a covered bus bay that also functions as a play area. In the morning and afternoon, the bus bay allows students to disembark from and wait for their buses under cover, which is important for their comfort and safety as the intensity and frequency of rainstorms in Singapore increase. During the school day, the bus bay provides nearly two acres of covered play space.

The column grid, bus bay height, and construction materials were selected with student play in mind. This approach also creates adaptive capacity as the large open space can absorb flooding or be converted to some other use if fewer buses are required.

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Credit: Fielding International Photo: Fielding International

Flexible structural grid defines a “playing board� for adapting the layout of spaces to future needs.

The covered bus bay becomes a play space in rainy Singapore throughout the day.

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Support Human and Environmental Well-Being The interdependence of environmental sustainability and well-being are perhaps most vividly illustrated in the strategies to create a healthy campus. For example, our team is designing new buildings with a focus on indoor air quality, including a hybrid cooling system that combines large fans with pre-cooled air. There are no return air ducts in the hybrid cooling system, which means air is not recirculated. This reduces the likelihood of transmission of airborne pollutants or germs from one space to another and reduces the amount of ductwork where pollutants and germs can fester. The campus’s ventilation system maximizes fresh air intake, creating positive pressure in rooms to push out particles and pollutants. The increased fresh air also reduces CO2 levels, which, when elevated, impair cognitive ability and decision-making (Satish et al., 2012). In addition, the campus’s new and existing air handling equipment will be upgraded to MERV-14, which all but eliminates most pollutants and is helpful in reducing the spread of germs (Brown et al., 2014).

Photo: Fielding International

The social and emotional well-being of students, faculty, and staff are also being considered in the creation of a healthy school campus.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a bright light on the impact that disruptive change can have on mental health. In response, many school leaders are thinking about how they can reinforce a sense of safety and community and support emotional needs once schools reopen. To create the adaptive capacity to support social and emotional well-being after disruptive change, as well as meet the everyday needs of a thriving school community, the upgraded Singapore campus will offer a range of spaces and features including: • Quiet rooms with lower light levels and acoustic privacy for faculty and students to find the mental and physical distance to recharge.

• Views of nature from every classroom.

• Architectural forms that break down the campus’s scale and bring a sense of whimsy.

• Wellness space for faculty and staff to exercise, meditate, or pray.

Break Down the Scale The new elementary and middle school buildings are designed to make a big school feel small. Learning space modules in these buildings, called Learning Communities, have the same footprint but can be customized internally, supporting up to 88 students, or a quarter of a grade, with a suite of learning spaces. The learning spaces can be independently accessed and secured, allowing SPECIAL ISSUE September 2020 | 43

for use at different times of the day, if required.

Demountable partitions and a flexible structural grid for each suite of learning spaces create “a playing board” of space configurations that can be reorganized or repurposed over time as learning needs change.

A similar modular approach has been applied to dining, with multiple venues in each new school building. Half of the school can eat at once, making it much easier to schedule lunch when growing bodies need nourishment. Guidelines for physical distancing in Singapore from January through March required the school to find more dining locations for students besides the existing cafeteria, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Students and faculty appreciated the smaller settings, which can be repurposed for other kinds of learning and socializing throughout the day, particularly in the high school.

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Smart Technology Lastly, the upgraded campus is designed to be smart – to learn from users over time and offer greater flexibility in how space and resources are utilized. Our design team is considering the interface between the digital and physical campus as part of a larger “Digital Master Plan.” This includes linking online room reservation systems to the building management system and A/V systems, allowing users to reserve space on demand and for the building to optimize cooling, lighting, and A/V systems based on use. Not only does this reduce energy use and promote well-being, but it provides capacity for the building to adjust to changes in use that may develop over the short- and long-term.

Our design team is also exploring how learning spaces can serve as settings for videoconferences

so the campus’s resources can be available virtually, whether some or all students are on campus.

Imagine a live broadcast from the dance studio, or a virtual reality science experiment from home synced up with others in the science lab!

Reimagining School Infrastructure with Adaptive Capacity The last six months provided a painful reminder that human health, economic prosperity, and the health of the planet are intertwined. Without our health, prosperity cannot exist. Without a healthy planet, human health is threatened. We can expect that climate change, global health crises, and economic instability will bring future challenges to the health

of the planet and human beings. The COVID-19 pandemic led our team to think beyond sustainability targets and develop strategies to ensure the Singapore school’s infrastructure can respond to the current crisis and adapt to radical change over the next 60 years.

My work in Singapore is just one example of the shift we must begin to make in K-12 education, not a few months down the line but right now. Reimaging school buildings with adaptive capacity in mind is not just smart planning, it is a necessity. As our world grapples with profound change, we must be ready to confront and adapt to challenges and opportunities that are presented to us. Our children’s education, their future, is at stake.

Works Cited Brown, K., Minegishi, T., Allen, J., McCarthy, J., Spengler, J., and MacIntosh, D. (2014). Reducing patients’ exposures to asthma and allergy triggers in their homes: An evaluation of effectiveness of grades of forced air ventilation filters. Journal of Asthma, 51(6), 585– 594. doi: https://doi.org/10.3109/02770903.2014.895011 McPhearson, T. (2014). The rise of resilience: Linking resilience and sustainability in city planning. The Nature of Cities. Retrieved from: https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/06/08/the-rise-of-resilience-linking-resilience-and-sustainability-in-city-planning/ Olsson, P. (2003). Building capacity for resilience in social-ecological systems [Doctoral dissertation, Stockholm University].

ResearchGate. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268000778_Building_Capacity_for_Resilience_in_SocialEcological_Systems Satish, U., Mendell, M., Shekhar, K., Hotchi, T., Sullivan, D., Streufert, S., and Fisk, W. (2012). Is CO2 an indoor pollutant? Direct effects of low-to-moderate CO2 concentrations on human decision-making performance. Environmental Health Perspectives, 120(12), 1671-1677. doi: https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1104789

Isaac Williams (isaac@fieldingintl.com) is a partner with Fielding International (FI) and leads the FI team working on the Singapore campus. Isaac has been fortunate to lead the design of school facilities on five continents, and for the first time, one his daughter attends.

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