Optimizing or Innovating? Re-thinking the Role of Schools in our Community

To help us answer that question I looked back at my 25 year career in architecture and evaluated school facilities from the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's. In each decade most of those schools had unique features that were improvements from the decade before.
1980's - Education was in a time of reflection and economic decline. Little national investment was made in schools and what was made often was in the form of renovations or remodels. Much of the experimentation of the 1950's thru 1970's had stopped. Schools were conservative, simple, efficient, traditional and local governments had to supplement national energy conservation programs to keep those initiatives moving. For our firm it was an era of common areas, pods of classrooms, team teaching and all design decisions related to durability and low cost.
1990's  thru 2000's - During this period the idea of green-building became more prevalent. LEEDS standards were adopted in 1998 and became prevalent through the 2000's to be the most influential movement to shape school design. High performance buildings promote the responsible use of natural resources while providing a healthy indoor environment.
While these changes and improvements in schools have yielded largely positive results, they tend to focus on a fairly narrow set of challenges that are the "building" systems. Designing and building a better container for teaching and learning.  In tomorrows context larger questions that we are asking are:

1.) What is a school?

2.) Can schools better reflect and connect to our communities to improve student mastery, purpose and autonomy?

3.) What are the common "Connection Points" for purposeful learning? 

a. Family

b. Social Purpose

c. Work

d. Politics

e. Arts

f. Recreation

g. Health

h. Worship

4.) How can technology add value and enhance those connection points? 

Old Learning Model

New Learning Model

In today's information age people are in control. Big business models are expiring and new more contextual and personal models are evolving that put people in control of their own destiny. Education must create something new to remain valuable in students lives. New analytical tools combined with the evaluation and recognition of social, political, technological and personal opportunities will yield new and innovative results.

Have school facilities improved in the past century? In some ways, they certainly have. But in other ways, especially in the craft and science of natural lighting and conditioning, we may have simply circled back to where we started. These patterns are largely reflections of the greater societal and technological trends of the 20th and early 21st century, but they have also represented the sincere dedication of education leaders to improve the quality of learning environments for children in America. It is our mission and desire to see continued questioning, evaluation of new contexts, multiple iterations of innovation and subsequent integration of new techniques and solutions that improve student outcomes.
                                                                                                                                              
Darrell L. McAllister, A.I.A. is the Founding Principal of McAllister and Associates Architects.