Hi all
I think we should start discussing how we feel our literature relates to the school project and how we can use them to develop structure for our presentation and boards.
My text was: Dudek, M. Architecture of Schools: The New Learning Environments (2000) Architectural Press: Oxford
It considers the nature of a society of progressivism, relating to how schools are being revaluated at present through public sector and political means, especially within the BSF programme to improve the quality of education. I feel this strongly relates to the design and need for Hazelwood in the first place as it was positioned within a council programme for schools around the area.
The text also refers to schools attending to the needs of young children through security and a ‘home base’, a concept which is evident in the design of the school through small enclosed classrooms alongside a defensible zone including coat hooks, providing a intermediate zone between safety and school exploration, giving a sense of an individual students place.
Finally, I would like to comment on the design of schools for stimulation or suppression. Institutional, repeated rooms create a dull and unimaginative building, but cannot be fully discounted as they provide safety, security and a sense of control. Within current school design there seems to be a focus on breaking this nature to stimulate and encourage creativity, thereby providing less stability. Hazelwood’s modular class elements could be seen as manifestation of this need for security while also balancing the need creativity within the sculptural form and sense of ‘challenge’ outside of the classroom. I assume the teaching method plays a big part in this design also – with class rooms providing a stable – ‘sit down and learn’ environment, contrasting the physical exploration / practical learning within the spine of the building.
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the article i read was specifically to do with colour choice within educational design. for those that have not read it it came to no clear conclusion on a right or wrong way to design only rough guidelines, but was interesting nevertheless.
ReplyDeletetaking this sensory approach further ive taken a book out called 'another eyesight' which i will attempt to skim read sometime this week. im going to try and link in the theorists ideas in the article and book to how Hazelwood school was designed within the boundaries of colour and design for the visually impaired.
Craig your book was published in 2000, and you mention that it states 'schools are being revaluated at present'. has this already happened now and if so what were the results?
the 2 boards could be split into four sections on all our findings but that would be disjointed so how do you guys propose we collate all these various approaches into a coherent display!? its difficult when you think about it!
ReplyDeleteJust read the text to the side of the blog.... the presenation needs to be on a certain topic and the boards are a snapshot of the presentation... is our topic something as broad as 'educational design for special needs' or 'sensory design in education'??
ReplyDeleteMy study was based on a RIBA publication DVD which was titled 'Inclusive Design: Creating a Users World'. the DVD looks at three different case studies that show good examples of inclusive design approaches in a variety of different sectors and situations. There is a big emphasis on accessibility for the disabled in all of the schemes.
ReplyDeletei concentrated on the last case study which looked at the 'Willows School' design as part of the BSF for Wolverhampton. This example was the bringing together of two schools, one of which was a 'special school'. There were many similarities between the situations found in this example and that of Hazelwood and i felt that it made quite a good comparison.
Not only was there similarities in the overall context of the scheme but also in how the architects described their design process. There was an emphasis throughout about the architect connecting and communicating with the end users and this was a prevalent feature throughout the design process.
However the way in which the architects, 'ARCHITYPE', approached this connection seemed to be different in key areas through the designing process. Having said that it is debatable as to how much of this process was put on for the video as it was filmed throughout.
i'm not completely against it being a broad subject of study such as 'sensory design in education'. As Alex said we need to somehow make it coherent but at the same time we don't want to discard some of the research and findings we have. If the boards of graphically coherent around the subject of sensory design is there a problem with identifying our own different research aspects?
ReplyDeletenice picture neil
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHiya,
ReplyDeleteI have been looking into a similar literature review as Al, but it was designed for the blind who would have already established 'trailing', the technique the school teaches the children through walking and 'skimming' the trail wall. It discusses how architects can design for the blind specifically, giving them a 3d map for them to memorise with recognisable shapes which will become universal in every building, to recognise the toilets, for example being a square. The problem I found with this idea however, was actually placing it somewhere the user would be able to find it, if they don't know the building, they are not going to know where these maps would have been placed. Another interesting point the designers made, was the typeface. Without brail, a typeface needs to be designed so the users can quickly sweep their fingers over the words and be able to recognise what the word is, it's these simple yet effective approaches that can be easily put into a building but not always are. A blind person can use any building, so why use these ideas simply for buildings specifically for the blind??
As for the boards, from what I can understand it's for an exhibition so I'm thinking 2 boards, possibly with a main image that practically sums up our presentation with as little words as possible.
Are we all ok to meet Monday to design these boards and the presentation ready ahead for Thursday? Let me know what's easier for everyone for times.
Also nice picture Neil hehe xxx
By the way, I just read back what I wrote about the presentation boards and it just sounds like I've repeated the brief, haha, never mind we'll do it on Monday.
ReplyDeleteAs I was saying to Neil, we need to be organised, we need to know exactly what we are going to be doing so we don't waste all day on it. xx
monday sounds like a good idea, do you think we need to prepare any work between us to bring together then or is this unrealistic seeing theres a technology hand in on tues.
ReplyDeleteAlex in terms of you comment about the publish date; although im not sure about an exact programme at that time i have considered it alongside the current BSF projects (already mentioned) and the need to improve schools in through political ideology. this project was also considered a point of re-evaluation for the previous two schools which were considered unsuitable for their occupants
are we beggining to establish a common theme of challenge and design within architecture??
ReplyDeleteChange by Design: How Design Thinking Creates New Alternatives for Business and Society: How Design Thinking Can Transform Organizations and Inspire Innovation.
ReplyDeleteBy Tim Brown
The book is referred to by Tim brown as the idea of the design, for example the contents page is similar to a structure of building or a design and of course the structure to the book. However how Tim Brown has dealt with the contents page in a illustrative mind map style and shows the links and progression throughout the book “if we look at the world differently we come up with new design”. The analogy of design comes from the need and demand and to solve a particular solution. Such as the case study in particular that we looked at being a school for handicapped children and many had visionary impairments which became the Architects main focus points of the building.
The myth of innovation is that brilliant ideas leap fully formed from the minds of geniuses. The reality is that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination through which great ideas are identified and developed before being realized as new offerings and capabilities.
This book introduces the idea of design thinking, the collaborative process by which the designer's sensibilities and methods are employed to match people's needs not only with what is technically feasible and a viable business strategy. In short, design thinking converts need into demand. It's a human-centred approach to problem solving that helps people and organizations become more innovative and more creative.
Design thinking is not just applicable to so-called creative industries or people who work in the design field. It's a methodology that has been used by health organizations to increase the quality of patient care by re-examining the ways that their nurses manage shift change, or rethink supply chain management. The shift from design where the emphasis is on the output to design thinking where the emphasis is also on the act or the process, although I don’t totally agree with this statement due to the methodology that GM + AD in particular researched and thought about how to supply a suitable living environment for people with particular disabilities which did not effect them, so this idea of only being for people who manage or deal with the particular issue is not solely valid for if the designer or Architect understands the particular issues or ways in which the for example health organisation works, they can then design in a more appropriate method to enhance the quality of care and how the nurses think about management.
Yes I would agree with that statement Craig, it also raises a few questions we can answer throughout the presentation, and also some solutions by architects and to whether we agree or disagree?
ReplyDeleteAs for Monday, we could either go in for morning or afternoon so we don't waste all day. I want to get my case study out of the way this weekend so Monday will be fine.