School Design
Over the last five years a large number of new and refurbished schools have been designed and constructed in the UK and elsewhere, including hundreds in Wales. But do we know what constitutes best practice in design- what works and what does not?
This section is aimed at local authority and school clients, designers, suppliers and contractors, with the objective of providing some answers to these questions. There is often no one right answer, just as no one school project is the same as any other. However, there are certainly examples of good and not so good solutions.
Problems can be caused at the briefing stage, or because designers have repeated mistakes that others have made. This section of the 21st Century Schools Standard aims to illustrate and inform, providing definite requirements for some areas where appropriate, and allowing flexibility in others.
The aspects covered are:
Design process - an overview of the stages involved
Statutory Requirements - documents and reviews of the key areas of legislation affecting school design
Briefing - examples of documents that will be needed to cover all the requirements of school projects, whether new-build or refurbishment
Design Guidance by Topic - reviews of over a hundred key pieces of existing guidance, providing advice and commentary on how to use them and highlighting minimum standards where appropriate. You can also download the guidance documents themselves from here.
Examples - illustrated case studies of many of the aspects of school design covered above.
Sustainable School Design
For more information on sustainability please visit our Sustainability Schools Design subsite.
School Grounds
Best practice in the design of school grounds is important too, and is covered here
Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE)
Does the project deliver what was intended? POEs should be standard practice one year after handover. Guidance and examples are provided here. - links to follow soon.
Watch a video to guide you through the School Design Section of this website:
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