Review Team Roundtable

Review team member Rodolfo Almeida talking to review team member Prakash Nair about schools in developing nations, but the underlying ideas – flexibility, classroom size, schools as centers of the community – are relevant to all new school projects.

After having visited many schools in India, and having worked with local governments, I’ve tried to improve the jail cell-type classrooms seen there. Many years ago, I designed squatting desks, which could be used in one position for children and, by turning them 90 degrees, could become benches for adult education. Maybe we can influence them to make better and more flexible open designs-there exists an opportunity to develop outdoor learning spaces, cover the block walls with teaching materials, and try to start transforming the learning situation in a more meaningful way. I still remember, many years ago, the "minimum school" in one Indian state-it was a wall painted black and oriented east to west. The wall was the blackboard; children sat on floor mats in the morning and afternoon, oriented toward the shadow sides. Luckily, India has evolved and has now more funds are available for better learning environments.

Concerning Honduras, the "North American input" is interesting but not new for Central American countries where I’m now working. I’ve worked in Central America for many years, and as you know this region has suffered-and still suffers-a lot of destruction caused by hurricanes, landslides, and earthquakes. Honduras lost more than 65% of its schools during Hurricane Mitch; money comes from abroad and goes for rehabilitation and rebuilding but not for development.

Our efforts go toward safer schools that can withstand natural disasters, that can become temporary shelter for the communities during the disaster and, of course, schools that are innovative. So to design a project for Honduras, where there is no mention of nor attention to safer buildings, where the design only shows the creation of bigger classrooms with nice blue furniture, the school does not seem to address the needs of the country.

You know, Prakash, that in some countries, such as Belize, in some rural areas there is only a one room "box" that serves as a church, as a community meeting place, and as the school. So, adding more square feet to a classroom will not solve any problems-there are ways to increase the quality of education without increasing the school size or cost. Affordable and innovative.

Prakash Nair responding to Rodolfo Almeida:

As someone who originally comes from India, and as someone who has spent substantial time living in remote Indian villages, I can tell you that [one school submitted for review] is as far removed from the reality of these people’s lives as any institution can be. The architects have superimposed a completely Western notion of education, without even bothering to take the best of what the West has to offer, onto a community to which this method of education is completely irrelevant and wasteful. Instead of seeking out local strengths and reinforcing them through education, and instead of looking at the local context and climate and using architecture as a way to respond to it, this architect has made some interesting shapes on the ground and rationalized them by writing that "the shape of the room is designed to focus attention on the teacher" and that "views to the outside have been curtailed so students will not be distracted." While some passing reference is made to the "Gurukulam," this school has little in common with that venerable Indian tradition of learning from one’s "guru." It is interesting that the architect says the time in school is the only time that "children can experience their childhood" because these children work in agricultural jobs. I wonder how it is possible to "experience one’s childhood" in these jail cell-type classrooms.

Other projects, including the wonderful school in Honduras, illustrate that it is possible to create good schools even when money is in short supply. But that can only happen when the team developing the school truly cares about those who will ultimately own and use the school.

Prakash Nair discusses the advantages of evolving the school environment and trying new ideas.

The main point of this whole conversation is to celebrate good ideas. A good idea is still a good idea even when it is badly implemented. For example, charter schools represent a good idea that can work, but there are dozens of charter schools that are dismal failures-but the idea is still good.

We are not telling people, "go look at this project and do what they did." We are saying, "here are a bunch of people that broke the mold in some little or big way. Maybe they faced the problems that you face today and found unique ways to respond. Perhaps there is something here that may help you and get you closer to where you want to go."

The bottom line is, this awards program has introduced the world (in some very tangible and meaningful ways) to hundreds of innovative schools worldwide through images, plans, and descriptions of the process. In my estimation, given how many people in our profession and among the education community visit these project listings, we have indeed helped redefine the school planning and design profession.

Review team member Henry Sanoff discusses the review process.

A number of years ago I was involved in a housing awards program in the UK, where we reviewed submissions, visited the sites, and spoke to the residents and management. Consequently, many of the submissions that seemed to be well presented on paper, failed the walkthrough site visit. So, any approach less than a site visit is nothing more than a best guess. Although face-to-face contact would be the next best review strategy, the Internet certainly offers exciting new challenges. Through the Internet it is possible to gather a larger review team, with broad representation, somewhat like a Delphi Probe, that otherwise might not be feasible. Finally, our strength is that we do make judgments based on different criteria. Consequently, the award winners are selected on the basis of a variety of evaluative criteria, which elevates the value of their winning submission.

Susan J. Wolff talks about the importance of classroom design:

Many people do not understand or recognize that a "classroom" is only a temporary space. If that magic of discovery is not encouraged or supported in our formal learning spaces, then our learners seek it elsewhere and not always in the most productive ways. Educators can be frozen in both time and thought and that is partially due to how institutions are funded and accredited using longtime standards that equate to learning in the early 20th century-and even prior to that.

Each and every one of us need to keep the spirit of discovery alive even in these times of scarce funding and high stakes testing and I see this happening in the design process itself. The process can allow for dreams even in uncertain times, it can allow thinking to expand and blur boundaries and even leave boundaries far behind, and can create "community" within communities themselves.