Learning by Design: New school projects incorporate color, architectural features to enhance education

“Schools are a lot more than just a bunch of classrooms down a hallway,” said Jim Stufflebeam, principal with Sapp Design Associates, which designed Nixa’s $8.5 million High Pointe Elementary School that opened in August. “For these young people, school covers a full range of experiences that they go through on a daily basis. The challenge is to balance all of that as an architect.”

School designers have to consider all aspects of the students’ environment when creating a new school – sensory stimulation, comfort and safety – while still remaining within “barely adequate” taxpayer-funded budgets, as Stufflebeam said.

The key, he said, is balance in all aspects of the design.

“You have to have all the necessary spaces – the classrooms, gymnasiums and libraries – but also balance all the needs of faculty, administration, safety and security issues,” Stufflebeam said. “And then we have to try to create an environment that’s inspiring, inviting, uplifting, friendly, and balance all that with a limited budget.”

Visual stimulation

Keeping students mentally stimulated is crucial to successful education, and the most cost-effective method is color choice.

Debby Lawson, director of elementary education for Nixa R-II School District, said color choices at High Pointe were designed to pique students’ interest.

“You want to create a neutral palette but with a splash of color,” Lawson said. She used recent educational and neuroscience research, as well as the book “Environments for Learning,” by Eric Jensen, to guide the design process for High Pointe.

“You don’t want too much stimulation, because that’s distracting, but you don’t want a hospital setting either,” Lawson said.

Scott Wendt, director of capital construction for Springfield R-XII School District, said the redesign project at Weller Elementary School goes beyond color for visual stimulation and includes alternating patterns of numbers and symbols on hallway floors, giving teachers the chance to continue the learning process outside the classroom.

Architectural elements – columns, arches and windows – also are visually interesting, and Lawson noted that different types of lighting can be used to replicate natural light.

Community design

Tim Rosenbury of Butler, Rosenbury & Partners, which has designed renovations for several Springfield elementary schools including Weller and McGregor, said creating a sense of community is key.

“School buildings do not come cheaply, and to use them on a limited basis is an unwise use of community resources,” he said. “Any time you can get other people using school facilities in the community, that school contributes in multiple ways to community health.”

Most school designs put rooms used by all students – libraries, music and art rooms, gyms and cafeterias – in the center of the school building to allow easy access.

Increasingly, however, some of those spaces, particularly the art and music rooms or the library, are being placed near the front of the building so they can be used more easily by outside groups.

“The library is a destination, and the space is used by the community a lot,” Stufflebeam said. “Libraries can often have a lot of windows or glass patterns, so there’s a lot of opportunity for decorative elements when you put the library in the front. Art and music are spaces used by most of the students, and a lot of interesting visual things can be done with displays of student creativity.”

Security

Room placement also plays a key role in school security. Nearly all designs, Stufflebeam said, place the administrative offices in the front of the building.

“You want to keep an eye on who comes and goes from the building,” he said, noting that designers are increasingly adding a vestibule to create an additional level of security. “Someone coming in can only get in through the secure vestibule – they have to go to a window to check in or into an administrative area before they’re cleared to go into the rest of the building.”

Springfield’s Wendt said district administrators look for designers with experience, particularly in a technique called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, which alters building designs to dissuade criminals.

Rosenbury added that security must be balanced with a sense of openness and transparency.

“People in the community should feel like the facility is secure yet welcoming,” he said. “It’s a challenge to find ways to reconcile those two aspects.”

Flexibility

New designs also are allowing for flexibility of space. Stufflebeam said that while concrete masonry is still the norm for corridors and major spaces like gymnasiums and cafeterias, the walls between classrooms are now often created with drywall and studs so that wiring changes for technology will be easier.

“It’s a delicate balance between putting enough hard walls in to control costs and make rooms for functions, and at the same time trying to think about what those classroom needs might be five, 10, 30 years from now,” Stufflebeam said. “You have to provide a plug-and-play environment that allows for upgrades in technology – wiring that is flexible and can be changed easily. Instructional technology is more than books and chalk.”

Balancing the budget

All features of a new or renovated school must be balanced with the underlying constraint on school projects: the budget.

While some items – ergonomic chairs to encourage more student participation, desks that can accommodate laptop computers, additional acoustic panels in the cafeteria to alleviate the need for students to yell – may cost extra, Nixa’s Lawson said they are worth the initial expense.

“Like everything else, it’s cheaper to do it in the initial phase than to come back and try to retrofit something,” she said.

She also noted that there are numerous ways to enhance the environment that don’t add to the bottom line.

“Color doesn’t cost extra,” she said. “We can’t get crazy with the design, because we are using taxpayer money, but if you can create a learning space that’s exciting and helps with the learning, that’s ideal.”[[In-content Ad]]