Lessons Learnt from School Design

QUALITIES TO CONSIDER: Light and Airy Welcoming Atmosphere Quality Green Spaces Good Wayfinding What does the Scottish experience tell us about the key lessons for school briefing and design?

Qualities

Lessons for Briefing Briefing for fundamental design qualities within our schools recognises the value of creative design in satisfying our requirements. We may know what we want to do in a school building and how we want it to feel – but the way in which we respond to these within a sea of constraints is where design really matters. Much of what we typically call a brief is a contractual specification setting out not only the requirements but often the detailed characteristics of the preferred answer. In a complex building it is genuinely difficult to anticipate the impact of each and every element on the qualities of the final experience. This is because we don’t generally set out what that final experience should be. So, sitting above every brief there needs to be a design statement – a qualitative narrative which attempts to capture the overriding, non-negotiable, qualities at the very heart of the issue. These are the default requirements for every single part of the solution. An authentic expression of the building qualities we most value in any unique context gives us the most relevant framework to make decisions and rise to the right challenges. The first question of any design becomes – is this an answer with the qualities we are looking for? If our initial constraints seem to make this impossible then we need to look again at why we are doing what we are doing, or use the power of design to redefine the art of the possible. Design briefs for learning spaces are being prepared every day in Scotland. We have the experience across the country to know what works well, and what doesn’t. We have learnt lessons. One of these is that good designers working to deliver fundamental qualities in a strong brief is a key step in delivering consistently great learning spaces.

Drawings by Professor Alan Dunlop, Alan Dunlop Architects

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