Times certainly have changed, not just in terms of what students are learning and eating, but the environments where they’re learning. Increasingly, the design of schools isn’t going out, but up, as the concept of multi-storey schools gains popularity.

This year’s Victorian State budget confirmed investment for the planning and site preparation of a new vertical primary school in South Melbourne, a first for Australia and likely to set a precedent for the design of both new and existing schools in our cities.

Vertical schools are already being successfully designed and delivered elsewhere in the world, including the Hampden Gurney primary school in London. Davis Langdon, an ArchTam company, provided project and cost management services to enable this school to be constructed over 6 levels on a space-restricted site. Incorporating a playground on the roof with play decks on intermediate floors, schools like this are set to inform the design process for similar schools in Australia.

So what’s driving the growth of these schools as opposed to more conventionally designed ones? Space, or the lack of it, is the most obvious reason. Population growth is seeing young families settle in high-density areas, attracted by associated lifestyle benefits that also make the ‘traditional’ school design model harder to achieve. There’s simply not sufficient space to either build new schools or expand onto existing school buildings.

Schools are thus required to use their spaces more efficiently while maintaining a creative and accessible learning environment. Often, existing buildings in city locations where schools would not traditionally have been found can be adapted. This has happened in New York, where a former public library warehouse is being turned into an expanded Beacon High School. Where such conversions aren’t possible, however, alternative expansionist solutions are being sought.

The health benefits associated with vertical schools are also driving their popularity. Being more efficient with space in inner-city areas enables schools to retain their premium locations and be located in close proximity to students’ homes, encouraging more to walk to school and increase daily exercise while reducing congestion on surrounding roads.

For all the benefits, however, there are important factors to be considered when designing such vertical schools to ensure optimum learning experiences for students.

Impact on recreation

The benefits of vertical school cannot be at the expense of student learning and recreation. A lack of outdoor space on the upper levels of a vertical school may require teachers to adapt their style of learning, which may be restricted to indoor areas. A major consideration during design would be to review how outdoor areas are incorporated into upper levels to accommodate student recreation and sporting activities, or how open spaces on adjacent sites could be used. Careful planning would also be required to avoid overcrowding during student recreation times in these areas.

Movement of students

Swift movement and circulation of students throughout each of the floors is key to managing class timetables. A heavy reliance on lifts to upper floors requires maintenance to be minimised so as to avoid delays in getting to class. A solution, though, could be to zone different year groups into blocks connected by stairs, thus requiring lift/escalator access by these groups at the beginning and end of the day only. This would also promote activeness and wellbeing by encouraging walking up stairs. Staggering class start times could also be considered to avoid congestion in the lift foyers and stairwells.

Health and safety

Fire evacuation and safety is paramount to the design of any school, but in the case of vertical schools, it takes on additional importance. Basing students in lower storeys, for example, would result in less risk for younger age groups and ensure evacuation procedures are carried out with minimal delay. Road traffic and safety also need to be considered if fire assembly points are located outside of the school premises.

The UN Habitat predicts that by 2050 more than 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. This growing urban densification and the vertical cities it creates mean vertical schools will become more common.

Building ‘up’ as opposed to ‘out’ requires a shift in perception in how we should adapt the design of public facilities; we need to consider how we can better plan for public services such as education. The days of the ‘old school yard’ are changing, but we need to remember that, as learning environments evolve and rise, so too will expectations for quality learning outcomes.

Nick Ockleshaw (nick.ockleshaw@archtam.com) is an associate in project management at Davis Langdon, an ArchTam company.

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In Hong Kong, largely by accident, urban planning policy has created a low CO₂e model. This is a dense place. According to the Hong Kong government, there are 6,620 persons per km², with density reaching up to 56,200/km² in one district. Hong Kong’s seven million plus people are packed into just 25% of its land area (1,104 km²) with 40% of land remaining protected green space. Hong Kong achieves this by being highly vertical (thanks to more than 7,400 skyscrapers), and the average Hongkonger lives small: the average size of a new home there is 484 ft². Compare that with the US, where the average size of a new home is nearly four times larger: 2,164 ft²

Hongkongers may live small, but they are also comparatively wealthy and live longer. GDP per capita is roughly the same between Hong Kong and the US, and a Hongkonger manages to live more than four years longer. The table below illustrates that you can be affluent and live on a lot less. There is a very strong correlation between new home size and carbon emissions.

Despite being at a similar economic level to a typical American, a typical Hongkonger’s carbon footprint is 68% less than that American’s. When one assesses home size, the percentage disparity is even more pronounced – the size of a new home in Hong Kong is 78% smaller than an American one.

New York, one of the densest places in America, is a domestic outlier in terms of CO₂e per capita, average new single family home size, and proportion of the population that uses public transport. A New Yorker’s carbon footprint is 59% less than an average American’s; his home is on average 40% smaller; and the share of New Yorkers using public transport to get to work is more than 13 times the average for the wider country – all this despite the fact that a New Yorker is on average much wealthier than the typical American and lives longer.

The lesson here is that this model of urbanization—based on a smaller home size that consumes less energy and can accommodate a population much closer together and to their places of employment and leisure—significantly lowers individual carbon footprint without burdening individual economic level and quality of life (in fact quite the opposite).

The Hong Kong pattern of urbanization is further underpinned by significant investment in a connected public transport system that is based on the idea of overlapping uses spatially. The expansion of Hong Kong’s urban footprint in the last several decades has been intimately tied to transit-oriented development. As its population expanded from the original urban core of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, new urbanization in outlying areas of the territory has followed a linear pattern that is set by the rail tracks laid down by Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation, the primary rail provider. Each of these new towns is very efficiently tied to the rest of the city through a system that results in more than 90% of the population using public transport every day. Admittedly, the character of Hong Kong’s urban form – something that looks a bit like a messier version of the Corbusian ideal – is not to everyone’s taste, but it no doubt is a pretty efficient way of ensuring that wealthy, urbanizing societies keep their carbon emissions down.

Daniel Elsea is creative director for ArchTam’s Buildings + Places group, is the co-author of the forthcoming book “Jigsaw City: ArchTam and the Asian New Town Now,” and is currently a post-graduate in sustainable urban development at the University of Oxford.

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As urbanization increases across the globe, with its associated increase in built space, density, infrastructure, technology, and associated economic development, not to mention a faster pace of life, the basic human need for leisure and cultural activities and places will continue to grow in importance.

An important portion of this will take traditional, if more modern and interesting forms, such as parks like the High Line in New York City and Millennium Park in Chicago, beautiful spaces that are destinations in their own right that provide visitors with the opportunity to stroll, relax, take in the view, watch other visitors, enjoy an event, and even exercise, all without requiring them to knowingly cross a barrier or gate, enter a building, or spend any money.

At the same time, we will continue to see growth in attendance at leisure and cultural venues that in some form or another more directly control access and that directly or indirectly require (or need) visitors to spend money. Some of these, such as observation decks, will be direct byproducts of urbanization, ease of access by urban visitors, and improvements in building technology, allowing visitors to have a higher and higher view of the city, which is both educational and entertaining, such as the One World Observatory on top of One World Trade Center in New York City, forecasted to draw 3.8 million visitors annually.  This will be just one of three observation experiences in New York City, and will add to the growing number of such experiences worldwide.

One World Observatory atop One World Trade Center. Image courtesy of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Attendance is also expected to grow at major cultural institutions, such as museums and performing arts centers, as well at sports facilities, entertainment venues, and amusement parks and related facilities. While all of these have existed in various periods for significant periods of time (some longer than others), the quality of the experiences offered to visitors has increased over time at each. In addition, despite the continued improvement in technology in the home, which seemingly poses a threat to experiences in places outside the home, in fact we are social creatures and enjoy sharing experiences together, particularly ones that are in some way meaningful.

Mt. Vernon visitor center, Virginia. Copyright ArchTam photo by David Lloyd.

Evidence of this trend is given by the continued growth in attendance at the top 25 theme parks worldwide, which collectively had 206 million visitors in 2012, up from 188 million in 2007 prior to the Great Recession. Similarly, while global figures have just started to be tracked, attendance at the top 20 museums worldwide was 99 million in 2012 and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the future, particularly due to the impact of the growth of museums in developing countries, such as China which intends to add 1,000 museums over the next decade.

More information about attendance trends at major theme parks, water parks, and museums worldwide can be found in the 2012 Theme Index and Museum Index prepared by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and ArchTam. Click here for the full report, from which the following figures have been reproduced.

Brian Sands (brian.sands@archtam.com) is a vice president with ArchTam’s Economics practice.

The post Need for public leisure places keeps rising appeared first on Blog.

As urbanization increases across the globe, with its associated increase in built space, density, infrastructure, technology, and associated economic development, not to mention a faster pace of life, the basic human need for leisure and cultural activities and places will continue to grow in importance.

An important portion of this will take traditional, if more modern and interesting forms, such as parks like the High Line in New York City and Millennium Park in Chicago, beautiful spaces that are destinations in their own right that provide visitors with the opportunity to stroll, relax, take in the view, watch other visitors, enjoy an event, and even exercise, all without requiring them to knowingly cross a barrier or gate, enter a building, or spend any money.

At the same time, we will continue to see growth in attendance at leisure and cultural venues that in some form or another more directly control access and that directly or indirectly require (or need) visitors to spend money. Some of these, such as observation decks, will be direct byproducts of urbanization, ease of access by urban visitors, and improvements in building technology, allowing visitors to have a higher and higher view of the city, which is both educational and entertaining, such as the One World Observatory on top of One World Trade Center in New York City, forecasted to draw 3.8 million visitors annually.  This will be just one of three observation experiences in New York City, and will add to the growing number of such experiences worldwide.

One World Observatory atop One World Trade Center. Image courtesy of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Attendance is also expected to grow at major cultural institutions, such as museums and performing arts centers, as well at sports facilities, entertainment venues, and amusement parks and related facilities. While all of these have existed in various periods for significant periods of time (some longer than others), the quality of the experiences offered to visitors has increased over time at each. In addition, despite the continued improvement in technology in the home, which seemingly poses a threat to experiences in places outside the home, in fact we are social creatures and enjoy sharing experiences together, particularly ones that are in some way meaningful.

Mt. Vernon visitor center, Virginia. Copyright ArchTam photo by David Lloyd.

Evidence of this trend is given by the continued growth in attendance at the top 25 theme parks worldwide, which collectively had 206 million visitors in 2012, up from 188 million in 2007 prior to the Great Recession. Similarly, while global figures have just started to be tracked, attendance at the top 20 museums worldwide was 99 million in 2012 and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the future, particularly due to the impact of the growth of museums in developing countries, such as China which intends to add 1,000 museums over the next decade.

More information about attendance trends at major theme parks, water parks, and museums worldwide can be found in the 2012 Theme Index and Museum Index prepared by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and ArchTam. Click here for the full report, from which the following figures have been reproduced.

Brian Sands (brian.sands@archtam.com) is a vice president with ArchTam’s Economics practice.

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