| Franklin Hill & Associates Click here to read a recient newspaper article about a Franklin Hill & Associates project in Red Lodge, Montana. Articles by Franklin Hill and Staff Summarized below are several articles authored by Franklin Hill on trends in education, technology and design. Click on the article of interest to read, print out, or forward the article to a colleague. If you have any comments, you are encouraged for forward them to Frank at his email: frank@franklinhill.com or call to discuss ideas personally. First Design the Fundamentals, Then Design a School of the Future In order to create a true school of the future, it is first necessary to meet the basic needs of the student and other facility occupants. Design elements that are new and different need a solid grounding in functionallity before they should be considered for incorporation in school design. Schematic
Design Giveth and Design Development (CAN) taketh Away Schematic design for schools, the first phase of the design process, can often set the framework for the entire project and identify all the “wish-list” items desired by the client. Everybody wants everything to be possible. But, adjusting design and scope is just part of the process, a process that is ever evaluating, budgeting, estimating, gaining new information, and going through the iterative process again and again and again. Read more on why it is so important to involve the client during the whole process. Architecture:
A Process for Educational Excellence Within Budget While touring the vendor area at a national convention on school business, one architectural firm displayed enlarged photographs of an incredibly expensive school entry, foyer, and commons area.
Wow, what a chance for an article. I feel community is important, but I prefer focusing design in the classroom areas for a seamless whole-systems approach to learning, community, and technology. Furniture
Selection: Part of an Integrated Design Process Read these very helpful tips for renovating or creating a new school design for your educational facility. Choosing the appropriate furniture for your school is very important in making the classrooms functional. You can avoid a lot of problems if you think about the following considerations. EDUCATIONAL
FACILITY MASTER PLANNING: This article will present a 10-point checklist of issues to consider during the facility planning process. Issues will pertain to a single school being remodeled or to an entire school district undergoing massive remodeling, new construction, and maintenance upgrades. Redevelopment
Planning after Hurricane Katrina: The multi-state regional devastation that occurred as a result of hurricane Katrina must now be rectified by a multi-level, whole-systems approach to economic and community redevelopment. Education, and particularly educational facility planning, will have a very important role to play in this process, and as a result, can provide an invaluable social stabilization role. To be successful, it is critical that any reconstruction and new town development must be seen as a focus on people in neighborhoods, which create sustainable communities, not simply rebuilding buildings along streets with adequate power and sewers. Constructing buildings is relatively easy. Creating a symbiotic long-term sense of social order and economic stability is the true mission and is much more difficult. School
Design Impacts upon Cognitive Learning: Often times, overly abundant natural lighting combined with poorly dimensioned room design may still feel nice and look futuristic, but when studied more closely, it may actually impede the learning process and be detriment to education. Community Involvement - Is It Rinky Dink Or A Chance To Think? Community Involvement as part of the facility planning process has been around for a long time. For some, it is “just another hoop to jump through”. For others, it is a political “must do” to gather pre-election support. In some cases, hundreds of people converge on a school cafeteria surrounded by flip, with small groups talking and working up a storm. Then, the people go home, the paper is folded neatly and put in a file, and the project goes “forward as planned”. You see, community involvement is “much ado about nothing… A waste of time …a necessary evil” If you believe this, or have performed this type of involvement, consider retirement. Green Schools “Create” Learning
Tools The expanding popularity of GREEN design in our school buildings is good for the environment. When properly handled educationally, a GREEN design can be much, much more. Many GREEN schools are “creating” learning tools. Examples in this article have been developed by Franklin Hill & Associates in numerous schools across the United States and Canada. Several in this article were specifically recommended as part of the planning process for the Brookfield Zoo Immersion K-12 School planned outside of Chicago, Illinois. Planning
Playgrounds and Athletics Facilities: Too often, the planning of playgrounds and athletic fields are given
serious attention only after the “more important design” of
the school is complete. After all, they are only PE areas. This approach
is a total mistake and reflects a lack of understanding of the complex
and important relationship these areas have to the total educational
program, safety/security of students, and opportunities for school campus
use by the community. Impacts of Design on Learning: Multimedia in the Classroom Imagine youngsters recognizing a square, oval, and rectangle on their instructional television. Pretty simple stuff, right? Wrong! The students actually were viewing a rectangle, circle, and square. The cause of the “problem” is a poorly designed learning environment. If students can’t even differentiate a square from a rectangle or a circle from an oval, how can we expect them to learn?? And how can we deny the impact of the design of the classroom environment upon quality education? Quality school design must be a major concern of every educator and administrator. |