THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA · I would like to thank the Winston Churchill...

2014Mark Trotter

To develop new architectural initiatives to enhance education facilities for disadvantaged

and disengaged youth

THE WINSTON CHURCHILL

MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA

Mark Trotter - 2013 Churchill Fellow2

Report by - Mark Trotter - 2013 Churchill Fellow

Project Aim - To develop new architectural initiatives to enhance education facilities for disadvantaged and disengaged youth.

I understand that the Churchill Trust may publish this report, either in hard copy or on the internet or both, and consent is given to such publication.

I indemnify the Churchill Trust against any loss, costs or damages it may suffer arising out of any claim or proceedings made against the Trust in respect of or arising out of the publication of any report submitted to the Trust and which the Trust places on a website for access over the internet.

I also warrant that my final report is original and does not infringe the copyright of any person, or contain anything which is, or the incorporation of which into the final report is, actionable for defamation, a breach of any privacy law or obligation, breach of confidence, contempt of court, passing-off or contravention of any other private right or of any law.

Signed Dated

THE WINSTON CHURCHILL

MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA

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Index

Introduction .......................................................................4

Executive Summary...........................................................6

Program.............................................................................8

Pre-Fellowship Experience..............................................10

The Research Tour - Canada...........................................12

The Research Tour - United States of America ...............24

The Research Tour - Ireland ............................................32

The Research Tour - England ..........................................38

The Research Tour - Finland ...........................................44

The Research Tour - Singapore ......................................52

The Research Tour - Europe ...........................................56

Conclusions and Recommendations ..............................58


I would like to thank the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust of Australia for the opportunity to undertake this research study which has been one of the highlights of my professional career. I would also like to thank the many education and architectural professionals with whom I met and visited education facilities across the world, along with the many students I met along the way. I have been a director of Fulton Trotter Architects since 1988 and have designed schools within this practice since 1979. More recently I have had the pleasure of working with Edmund Rice Education Australia Youth Plus on the development of 11 different education facilities for disengaged and disadvantaged youth. My work with Dale Murray and his colleagues on this important work laid the basis for undertaking this fellowship and I hope I can continue to contribute to that endeavour over the future, now with a greater understanding of how other cultures deal with similar issues. I visited six countries across North America, Europe, and Asia in these studies, along with allied travel to four other countries in Europe which contributed to my understanding of the architectural opportunities for change. I encountered issues around young people’s education ranging from racial history disadvantages, poverty and consequent family breakdown, along with mild to significant mental health impediments which affect the response to school involvement. In all cases, the quality of built facilities, both in extent or range of facilities, and the aesthetics and style made a significant impact on student performance and parental and community support. I must also thank my co-directors of Fulton Trotter Architects for not complaining at my absence from the practice for nine weeks, and to Justine Ebzery and Heather Miethke for their assistance with proof-reading and presentation respectively. My wife Helen accompanied me on our journey, adding her educational background to many of the discussions and I would like to acknowledge how important her support and engagement was and how it assisted in my studies. I would also like to thank her employer, World Education Program - Australia for allowing the time off to accompany me. Finally, I would also thank my 4 children Andrew, Michael, Megan and Louise for their love and encouragement in applying for, and undertaking this journey.

Introduction


Executive Summary

Churchill Fellowship 2013 : Mark Trotter, Director of Fulton Trotter Architects, Spring Hill, Brisbane. (Ph 0732911511) email : [email protected]

I proposed a project to undertake the following research: “To visit 16 exemplar schools in six OECD countries to see their facilities, meet with their designers and educators, understand their contexts and critique their success. Each of these schools cater for different groups of disadvantaged or disengaged youth and represents alternative methods of re-engagement and empowerment. From this experience, I hope to develop new ideas for schools that address similar youth issues in the Australian context.” This project followed on from a previous Churchill study undertaken by my client and colleague, Dale Murray which looked at the educational settings of this subject in 2012. I met with some of Dale’s contacts as well as a myriad of others across six countries emanating from contacts made through the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI).

The project took me to Canada, the USA, Ireland, England, Finland, and Singapore. I visited sites ranging from Indian reservation schools, poor African American theatre programs, Irish and English schools and community facilities for poor and dysfunctional communities, Finnish mainstream schools and schools for Autism and Disability. I delivered two lectures to audiences in Canada and Singapore and even sat in on a poverty “organiser” session in New York. I was fortunate enough to have my wife (an educator) travel with me and she was able to contribute to the many discussions from an education perspective, and also between visits to help in developing ideas drawn from the tour. I quote her experience of the research below: “This Churchill Fellowship trip has enabled us to gain an invaluable educational and architectural insight into the needs of disadvantaged and disengaged youth around the globe. We’ve met inspirational students with incredible stories of hope despite their personal circumstances. All made possible by their unique school structure and their Principals and staff who have an incredible gift of seeing their role as an opportunity to truly understand their students unique needs and are capable of making a difference by their boundless commitment to provide a profoundly different approach to providing informed, professional, nonjudgmental care, support and educational guidance to these young people.

To be honest these kids needs are the same as every kid’s needs. To be nourished, to have shelter and a good nights sleep, to love and to be loved, to feel safe and secure, to be valued, to be provided with life experiences which enable personal development, to have the opportunity to be served and to serve others, to receive, to contribute, to learn...”

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I met with as many educators as I did with architects and they all gave very willingly of their time and thoughts. I was particularly taken with the work of the All Stars project in New York and Newark which seemed to reinforce the notion that the quality of educational environments architecturally makes a real and substantial difference in the lives of young people, and therefore whole communities. It is not an added luxury, but part of wanting our young generation to learn well and reach for excellence in life and learning. This message was reinforced in nearly every place we visited. The common experience is one of disengaged youth and poor communities being generally given poorly designed minimalist facilities which reinforce perceptions of class and disadvantage. However, in most of the visits I saw schools which were designed to a higher standard in facilities and aesthetic qualities.

In Finland, I found schools which seem to encapsulate the idea of authentically designed environments which capture educational, social, and environmental needs free from preconceived imagery and of a quality that all citizens should aspire to. It seems to mirror a society less concerned with financial success and more attuned to happiness and social cohesion. To me, this example was the pinnacle of both educational and architectural experience.

I plan to keep this research alive through our actual design work of educational projects including our Youth Plus projects. I continue to train young architects in our office to understand these issues and to debate ideas with clients and colleagues in our CEFPI and Queensland Education Leadership Institute (QELI) networks. Having been exposed to these broader world ideas, I also plan to continue, through our own office resources, further study of the topic overseas in a bid to keep our practice at the leading edge of educational design.


Program

I undertook this Fellowship trip from the 30th May 2014 to the 1st August 2014.

I had one week in each of my destination countries with a three week break in the middle, visiting four other European countries. The places I visited and the people I met or encountered in my research were as follows.

Canada

Vancouver, British Columbia

University of British Columbia Jennifer Vadeboncoeur UBC

The Long House Jennifer Vadeboncoeur UBC

The Global Lounge Jennifer Vadeboncoeur UBC

UBC Faculty of Education Jennifer Vadeboncoeur UBC

UBC Learning Exchange, Vancouver

Kathleen Leahy UBC

Westside Montessori Academy Jennifer Vadeboncoeur Parent

Broadway Youth Resource Centre Alison Parker BYRC

Broadway Youth Resource Centre - under construction

Larry Adams NSDA

Penticton, British Columbia

Penticton Indian Band School Kendall Jessiman Iredale Architects

Penticton Indian Band Health Centre

Kendall Jessiman Iredale Architects

Agassiz, British Columbia

Seabird Island School Patrick Stewart Patrick Stewart Architect

Seabird Island Health Centre Patrick Stewart Patrick Stewart Architect

United States of America

New York, New York All Stars Project, 42nd St. Bonny Gildin All Stars

Newark, New Jersey All Stars Project Newark Bonny Gildin All Stars

Teachers Village Linda Morgan RBH Group

Providence, Rhode Island

The MET, Big Picture School, Rhode Island

Janet Villanueva-Williams The MET

Ireland

Dublin Department of Education and Skills

Tony Sheppard DES, Ireland

Department of Education and Skills

Diarmud Haiceid DES, Ireland

Seville Place School Nuala Grealy SPS

St Lawerence O’Toole Special School

Sean Harrington

Dublin City University Daire Keogh St Patrick’s College

Limerick St Augustine’s School Andrew Boyce St Augustine’s School

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England

London The Hub Alastair Blythe

British Library Neil Logue UK Learning

Corby, Northamptonshire

Maplefields Terry White UK Learning

Manchester The new Roundhouse David Watkins Manchester Settlement

Finland

Helsinki Torpparinmaen Peruskoulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Arabian Peruskoulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Soinisen Koulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Jarvenpaan Lukio Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Latkartanan Koulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Espoo Martensbro Skoli Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Saunalahden Koulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Horsmarinpuiston Koulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Kirkojarvi Koulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Ruusutorpan Koulu Reino Tapaninen Finnish National Board of Education

Singapore

Singapore Eden School

Pathlight School Ng Sock Kian Autism Resource Centre

Fernvale Gardens School Annie Tan Fernvale School

CEFPI event / SIA speech Darren Berger CEFPI

Crest Secondary College Fredrick Yeo Crest Secondary College


Pre-fellowship Experience

Background

I have been a registered architect for over 30 years and worked on education projects, almost exclusively, for the last 20 years. In recent years I have been the director (of Fulton Trotter Architects) in charge of the design and construction of ten Youth Plus Flexible Learning Centres across Australia. These schools are specifically designed to cater for disengaged youth. As a consequence of that work, I have been working closely with the Youth Plus Director, Dale Murray , who won a 2012 Churchill fellowship to study educational advancements across the world in the area of disengaged youth. In Dale’s Churchill report he notes that “some 60,000 young Australians (are) currently engaged in flexible or alternative educational environments and perhaps many other thousands disengaged from learning altogether” He also makes the point “Our nation… faces ongoing challenges in engaging an ever increasing number of young people that for complex social, historical, political, and economic reasons are outside mainstream schooling environments” As I believe that the built environment itself has a part to play in both disengaging and re-engaging young people in education, I have undertaken this study in a variety of environments around the world.

Youth Plus Flexible Learning centres

As I have undertaken the ten FLC’s so far, I have learnt the value of various design components to the final outcome. The lessons range from small details which make spaces safe, through to overall concepts which inspire young people to participate and succeed. I was particularly keen to see if similar experiences were found overseas and if alternative facility mixes, size of schools, or style of schools make a difference in these endeavours.

Our most recent project, Noosa FLC, after intense consultation with the Youth Plus executive, school leadership, teachers and the young people themselves, was designed to a very different set of criteria and flavour than that of a traditional school.

The project included a very “democratic” egalitarian staff model, a holiday camp style aesthetic, and a conscious avoidance of “school” like environments in a natural bush setting. This followed on from earlier examples which had been more based on previous school experience and the critique that followed.

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Noosa Flexible Learning Centre Photography by Jason Smith

Noosa Flexible Learning Centre Photography by Jason Smith


The Research Tour Canada

In the following sections I have reflected on the experience in each country I visited. Most of the following observations were written as the tour progressed. I have only done minor editing as I think the sequence may also indicate the experience of each place as it was, not set in contrast to future visits.

Canada

Background Vancouver is one of the most livable cities in the world. British Columbia has a vibrant economy and has a magnificent landscape of mountains, gorges, lakes, and waterways. It is a boating, skiing and wine tasting paradise.

However British Columbia (BC) is a province which has a significant First Nations population which struggles to achieve the lifestyle of their BC compatriots, very similar to the Australian aboriginal experience. Through the events of history, and it appears, taxation and funding policy, many First Nations people live on reservations and their schooling and health services are provided in an isolated model catering for them alone. Funding is limited and separate from usual provincial government sources. BC also has a significant migrant population and black african community which are also disadvantaged compared to the general populace. BC also has the more usual (western) societal issue of youth affected by drugs, alcohol, and unexpected pregnancies.

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I visited BC in summer and experienced unusually dry weather but very welcoming hospitality from the educators and architects that I met. I drove from Vancouver to Penticton and then back, stopping at Agassiz on the way. I visited 4 schools, two of them Indian band schools, two Indian band health centres, the University of British Columbia, and two youth support agencies. I also met with five local architects who work in the education field and a group of education Phd students.

ObservationsBand schools and health centres

Indian band schools exist in isolation to the general school district education system. They are funded by the federal government as opposed to the provincial government. They concentrate on combining everyday education with learning traditional First Nations language and customs, along with elder involvement. However, their isolation also limits exposure to mainstream ideas and pedagogies and students from other cultures or a broad range of academic abilities. The ones which I visited are small schools of around 80 to 130 students. Unlike buildings designed for our climate, they are usually housed in one highly insulated building to accomodate BC’s very cold winters. Both of the schools that I visited had an Indian band health centre next door, offering, medical, dental, physiotherapy and mental health services as well as counselling services. Both of the schools that I visited are iconic buildings, Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School, Penticton by Iredale architects and Seabird Island Band school by Patkau architects. Both schools cater for particularly disadvantaged communities.Both designs have a strong narrative.



Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School, Penticton Penticton Band School is an elementary school with an enrolment of 85. I met with the schools architect and principal. It took some 20 years from inception to completion, four years ago. Extensive consultation with the community was undertaken in its planning and ideas. Penticton has a form where rolling roofs and walls echo the surrounding topography with curved metal cladding and stucco being the predominant materials along with significant areas of glazing connecting the interior to its majestic views of the Okanagan Valley below. Internally Penticton has a mix of timber structure, plaster finishes, timber slat ceilings and glazed partitions. It has several separate classrooms, a library, an iconic community room designed to replicate the historic native winter home buildings, a full basketball court sized gym and associated kitchen and admin and foyer spaces. The building and its spaces are of a very high standard in finishes, details and character, and one of which its community is quite clearly proud. It would appear that the pedagogy employed is relatively mainstream with individual classes for each grade and quite often in a teacher centred model. Volunteers form an integral part of the school’s success.

Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School, Penticton

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A Maslow analysis

Physiological response: Food: The delivery of food is a critical part of the project’s success, combining a full commercial kitchen with the gym space allows children to be fed early and is an attraction to the broader community to be volunteers, which is important to the school’s success. Acoustics: Careful attention to acoustic absorption in ceilings has created spaces where hearing is facilitated more than many facilities achieve. Safety: The most notable thing from a saftey point of view has been the general sizing of spaces allowing much more freedom of movement for students. Socialisation: The kitchen facilities use and prevalence has made assemblies and meetings more attractive to students and parents alike, leading to increased social cohesion at the school. The gym is a community hub for activity. Self esteem: Increases in parental involvement and First Nations teachers has been shown to help students see their future more clearly. Self Actualization: It is clear that the building is viewed with great pride by its community, with the Chief touring the building with other First Nations groups and other schools regularly. Increases in volunteering and First Nation teacher attraction and retention are evident.

These are significant improvements for student outcomes. While statistics are unavailable, anecdotal evidence suggests truancy rates are reduced.

Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School, Penticton


The enrolment for the school has now increased and unfortunately the libraryand community room are now being used as classrooms. Neither space is ideal for this and the quality of the community space is somewhat diminished by changes in furniture and storage occuring in window alcoves and the like. Externally the school has two playgrounds catering for differrent age groups and a field. This is augmented with an external fire pit conversation amphitheatreand some growing plots.

On the whole, this is a dynamic building which seems to be a powerful symbolfor Indian education, acknowledging place and tradition through its form bothoverall and detail, and its inside / outside connectivity through clever use ofglass and the siting of the building. The fact the school is outgrowing it with consequent intrusions of temporary partitioned spaces, out of context furniture, and scattered storage tends to dilute the visitors initial reaction to a wonderful building.

However, I think it would be fair to say that the innovation in the building is moreat an architectural level than a pedagogical or student level and is thereforerelatively fixed.

The client reported that there had been an increase in community gatheringsand family involvment in the school since completion and there can be no doubtthat the strong Indian based design idea must take some credit for this interest.


Seabird Island School, Agassiz

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Seabird Island School, Agassiz Seabird Island school has an enrolment of 135 and is an elementary school. It was completed nearly 20 years ago and was an iconic building in the world of architecture. I didn’t have the opportunity of meeting the architect or principal, instead touring the building with the architect for the neighbouring health centre. Like Penticton, the building is iconic, taking its form apparently from the shape of an eagle. It houses several classrooms, a library, a gym, a kitchen and admin spaces. However, unlike Penticton, the building is very disconnected from it’s exteriors. Its hall is a completely “black box” and its corridors have no connection to the exterior. External maintenance has been minimal, and the building is suffering accordingly. What I find interesting is that the desk layout (and I therefore assume pedagogy) in the classrooms is very traditional, which is quite surprising given the strength of innovation in the building form. As I didn’t have the chance to meet with any one from the school it would be unfair to provide any more comment other than that the state of the building seems at odds with its fame and perhaps indicates some sort of mismatch between the building and its client. The adjacent health centre has more First Nations iconography or detailing than the school which concentrates its effort at the global scale. I would suggest that in both Penticton and the Seabird Island site there could be a closer connection between the health centres and the schools.

Seabird Island School, Agassiz


UBC Learing Exchange (UBCLE) and Broadway Youth Resource Centre (BYRC), Vancouver

Both of these facilities offer education programs combined with access to other government agencies, particularly the BYRC. UBCLE is located in a poor area of Vancouver where disadvantaged First Nations and migrant communities tend to gather as well as the poorer black community. It is an outreach program for the university as well as a safe place where UBC students studying social issues can undertake research. It has enthusiastic staff and is a very busy place for both its purposes. Classes are small and often run by trainers drawn from the community itself and trained by UBC staff in subjects like English as a Second Language (ESL).Classrooms are small and glazed to keep everyone connected and aware of the centres vitality. It is spread over three levels in an old bank tenancy and must struggle with the inevitable disconnection that it entails. However, despite those impediments it is providing education to people to restart their lives and to act as a bridge to future studies and work. The key to its success is flexibility. The ground floor space is very open and all furniture has wheels and can be stacked or folded away. This seemingly minor decision has significant impacts on usability. Also of note is an original First Nations totem located on the ground floor. Kathleen Leahy (UBCLE) advised me that the community response to the use of original art of such significance in the space has been warmly welcomed by the First Nations community and helped build a sense of belonging for students far beyond what you may expect. Interestingly, when asked what might be needed if a new facility were to be built, the manager said that it would not want too be to slick.A sense of complexity and earthiness maintains a connection with its clientele and is important. Like the Indian band schools, food is an initial attraction as the centre offers free coffee with real milk. Likewise, free computer access is an initial attraction and often used for some time before students begin to engage with staff and the education opportunities of the centre. The BYRC is located in a suburban area of Vancouver and is currently in temporary leased premises awaiting imminent completion of a new centre which I also visited. The BYRC offers space for three small schools of about 20 each as well as access to numerous government support services for violence, drug rehabilitation and homelessness. It is filled with student artwork.


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It has a drop-in area similar to UBCLE with free computer access and free food which are both major attractions as the centre begins to build relationships with disengaged youth of the area. Alison Parker (BYRC), advised that about 50% of the clientele are of First Nations origin. A classroom and numerous staff offices support the centre’s students. There is nothing special about these spaces however the commercial kitchen is well fitted out and its product is key to the centre’s success. I also visited the almost complete new centre which houses not only the BYRC in expanded facilities but also 103 low cost housing units of which 30 will be allocated to BYRC clientele. This colocation of home and study for BYRC clients will no doubt strengthen BYRC outcomes as well as expose it to the other 70 residents of the accommodation. The new centre is over two floors and houses similar facilities to the temporary premises, albeit with three classrooms and a very large kitchen space.


UBC Students At UBC, I met with Jennifer Vadeboncoeur and four of her PhD students, giving a presentation of our work on Australian flexible learning centres for Youth Plus. We had a very good discussion about the centres and the ideas involved. The discussion focussed around the issue of providing facilities and spaces which did not feel like traditional schools and the negative stereotype of regimented behaviour that resulted. We discussed the importance of the community spaces, gathering spaces, and specific purpose facilities like sound recording to the centre’s success. The use of individual toilet spaces readily visible, the democratic non heirachial admin approach and the quality kitchen facilities were also seen as critical success components of our centres.

Global Lounge and The Long House Jennifer Vadeboncoeur showed me around the UBC campus, particularly focussing on two facilities with the purpose of connecting groups of students in danger of disconnection and isolation. The Global Lounge offers international students and students interested in global issue, the chance to meet and collaborate on egalitarian priojects. The Long House, a very distinctively designed building, provides a meeting place and support centre for indigenous students who are poorly represented in overall student numbers. Both of these facilities offer staff support, student interaction, and food as attractions to prospective visitors. But both also use quality design with a sense of place and richness to engage and encourage positive emotions in the target audiences. The Global Lounge uses a circular auditorium as a signature space, supported by foyers, meeting rooms, and kitchen facilities to provide a space to meet and be proud of. The space is quite memorable and engaging, fitting into a square building.


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The tension between the two shapes provides a strong dynamic especially as it is reinforced by material selections of timber for the curved walls. The general quality of design and finishes gives a kind of “club” feel which I believe would help make this an enticing and welcoming environment for those students lost in a large campus cohort. The Long House is unashamedly First Nations in design style, using a grid of 600 D Timber columns with like sized beams for both short and long spans. A twisted roof form for the main body of the building certainly adds interest.

Interior finishes are of natural timbers and the whole space has a calm and relaxing feel to it, while very clearly engaging its First Nations students. I can imagine that the support offered to students as they negotiate the difficulties of University life would only be enhanced by this structure.

It is clearly an important building, telegraphing to the students their importance on the campus as BC tries to improve First Nations academic outcomes.

The Long House


Westside Montessori Academy, Italian community centre, Vancouver Finally, in Vancouver, Jennifer took me to the Italian Community centre and particularly the Westside Montessori Academy. This school is small and is just one “tenant” in the overall Community which includes a museum, art centre, library, boche sports courts, a restaurant and a retirement living centre. The students of the school have regular interaction with the other occupants of the centre which enriches their experience of school and community, but also the experience of those other people as they see the children play and learn in their midst. This is a scenario often envisaged in “perfect school” brainstorming sessions held at various CEFPI conferences that I have attended, but rarely put into place. It is largley accidental but nevertheless interesting, successful, and worthy of further experimentation.


Summary With it’s significant First Nations population and migrant communities, Vancouver ( and BC), despite its wealth and vigour, has a need for quality education facilities combined with social services to support its disadvantaged communities. The Indian band schools have spent much energy in creating iconic buildings to serve that need, but both their isolation from the mainstream community and traditional pedagogy seem to dilute the effort somewhat. The BYRC and the UBCLE are good examples of schools for the disengaged, coexisting with other government services which I believe we should be exploring more. However, both exist in reasonably uninspiring spaces which devalue their mission. Vancouver provided a good start to the tour covering education from primary to beyond tertiary level, catering for a variety of disadvantaged groups.

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The Long House


The Research Tour United States of America

United States of America

Background New York, or at least Manhattan, is an incredibly busy place. Newark is a city which has failed and is now slowly making some progress towards resurgence. Providence, Rhode island is a fairly normal provincial city albeit with a poor socio economic position. Over one week, I visited 3 schools and 2 after school centres. All had very interesting insights to impart to this study.

The MET, Providence, Rhode Island. I visited this “Big Picture” school and met with the principal of one “house” along with five students. The MET (Metropolitan Regional Career and Tech Centre) has around 800 students broken down into four “ houses”, named Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Unity. Each “house” has around nine or 10 “advisories” which are largely what we would call classes, each about 15 to 20 students. The school caters for young people who have left mainstream schooling for reasons of boredom or general disengagement and operates on the basis of the “Big Picture” model of education. Students come from low socio economic areas, pay no fees and have to await a lottery style entry selection. Students generally attend the campus only 3 days a week, with the other 2 taken in internships at local businesses. The pedagogy is largely project based learning but with a very intense focus on actual work experience. After a prestart questionaire to establish a students strengths, each student decides, in conversation with the house principal, advisor, parents, and a social worker what area they would like to study, but all mainstream subjects are worked into that project. Students and staff meet as a group (pick me ups) at the start of the day, after breakfast, and the end of the day and sometimes at the end of the week (kick me outs).

They also have regular individual meetings with the principal, advisor, parent and 2 others to assess their progress and advise.

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Each house has a classroom space for each advisory plus a kitchen and large common space, where group meetings occur every day.

Each house has a very open administration area of its own and the campus seems to act as four small schools rather than one large one. All spaces are relatively simple and don’t include any particularly specialist facilities.

Support facilities are provided in the form of a media centre, a fitness centre, and an entrepreneurship centre. These are important buildings as they provide highly specialized spaces to act as an adjunct to the internship process.

The MET, Providence, Rhode Island


The Fitness centre includes a basketball court, weights and spinning spaces, and a significant rock climbing area with change and toilet facilities. The Media Centre includes a theatre (400 seats), drama and dance spaces, a sound recording studio, a radio station, a film and TV studio, editing suites, print shop and cafe. Many of these spaces are capable of, and are, running profitable businesses by students. The entrepreneurship centre houses technical facilities, adjacent single work spaces and a major meeting room. These spaces take classes in entrepreneurship and business development through a 3 stage process from an initial overview to actual product or service development and implementation through a highly competitive process. The school also has ample external areas for external sports or just ‘time out’ space.

The “architecture” of the buildings is not astounding, with the exception of the entrepreneurship centre which is a nice mix of traditional forms with expressed heavy timber structure internally. However, the facility mix is very interesting in providing spaces rarely seen in Australian schools, along with the small school approach of four schools within one school. The specialised facilities allow students to prepare high quality projects following their off site experiences and reinforce that program. The use of a central gathering space along with a quality food outlet in each house, reinforcing the “family” nature of each smaller school cohort is clearly an important factor in its success. All students appeared to be very happy in this environment and reported no bullying (which they had experienced elsewhere) and a genuine enthusiasm for the school.

There was a real sense of care evident and it was clear that if a student does look like dropping out then all parties care enough to bring the student back into the fold quickly. I was actually met and guided by a student, Denise, and interviewed 3 others, Briana, Bella and Mia, before seeing any staff. This is all part of the schools use of everyday life (visitors in this case) as a part of education.Interestingly, the formality of the buildings and their layout on the site is quite at odds with the informality of the pedagogy. So too the advisory and community spaces which neither captivate nor have really good display space. I think the


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schools remarkable pedagogy would be reinforced by better attention to both macro and micro design issues. A sister school has just opened at Newport RI which includes a significant focus on environmental design and display, but with otherwise similar facilities. However, it appears to provide a higher quality design environment.

The MET, Providence, Rhode Island


The All Stars Project, New York and Newark I met with Bonny Gildin, Vice president of The All Stars Project, an after school development program operating in Manahattan, Newark, and several other cities across the USA. I also briefly met Dr Lenora Fulani, co-founder of the program, and not unrelatedly, the first african american and/or woman to run for president (twice) in the USA. This was a fascinating visit. I visited both the Newark and 42nd St Manhattan campuses along with a walk around Newark with Bonny and town planner, Linda Morgan.

Newark, as a failed city has significant crime problems, and is unsafe after dark ( a car was even burning in the street as we made our way around the city). New building work is starting to happen around the city as its low cost opportunities are realised by the development community. Newark was a very successful and thriving city in the 1800s and even into the first half of the 20th century. However, racial tensions and some particular events in the 1960s saw it quickly fall from grace and population decline along with socio economic collapse. Hence it has a very poor commuity with entrenched unemployment and very poor perceptions of prospect from its largely black community. It is the children of this community that the new All Stars Project facility aims to assist. Dr Fulani and her team have a very interesting and engaging theme to their work. Based on Russian philosopher Vygotsky’s theories, they are concentrating on the theme of “development “ as a precursor to any successful implementation of “education”. I would refer readers to Dr Fulani’s joint paper with Fred Newman “Lets Pretend solving the education crisis in America: A special report” January 2011 to understand the full pedagogical, and political ideas involved. However, the use of theatre like performance to develop young people in all manner of activities, and then take that on to education and work readiness is at the heart of their work.


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All Stars Project, Newark The Newark facility is brand new and is a tenancy in a large office building on the ground floor.

It is a nice mix of open planned offices, and various sized multi purpose spaces all connected together through angular and extensive glazing. It has a very high quality feel with a touch of quirkiness which makes it fun space to be in. Such a quality space would be rare in the locality, especially for its intended students experience, and it is part of the group’s philosophy that provision and experience of such quality is part of the student’s development allowing them to aspire to this sort of design and space as part of everyday life, not that is someone elses alone to experience.

All Stars Project, Newark


All Stars Project, New York

Likewise, The 42nd Steet campus is an attractively set up series of spaces in an existing building. It has a good quality foyer space which acts as a theatre space as well as 3 different performance spaces for a variety of production types.

It also houses editing rooms, telemarketing facilities for both training and fundraising, and admin facilities. Like the MET, the facility mix is interesting for the importance of providing high professional quality specialist rooms and in this case that those spaces are also of a high interior design standard, aesthetically and functionally.

The core pedagogical/political ideas within the All Stars Project were the most powerful part of this visit. Their impact on the unashamed aspiration of providing high quality spaces both in function and appearance for students in disadvantaged or disengaged positions is significant. It is a strong argument against those that demand that archtectural solutions should be as cheap as possible and of only a student standard. Good design and quality equipment and space can form part of a significant solution for those students most demoralised by their position.


All Stars Project, New York

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Teachers Village, Newark With Linda Morgan of RBH Group, we had a tour of Newark and in particular two new charter schools in the area. The Teachers Village is designed by renowned architect Richard Meier and has only had one stage complete to date but later stages are under construction now. In contrast to much of Newark, the buildings have a typical RM whiteness and clean line. They add a new style to the street while not changing scale, and still incorporating brickwork tying in with neighbouring structures. These schools offer an education to the young people of Newark in new build-ings which are of a high standard. Perhaps in concert with The All Stars Project, they will help Newark youth to aspire to contribute to the wider US economy and society, more than just Newark itself.

USA Summary Having covered New York, Newark, and Providence, it is clear that in this part of the USA, the cohort of disengaged or disadvantaged youth come from a different background to those of British Columbia. Whereas BC has issues of First Nation people and poor migrants to deal with, these parts of the USA have the long history of black disadvantage to deal with along with the newer issues of drugs and marital failure. Dr Fulani’s approach to the black issue as a cultural one and the idea of "development” I find interesting in the Australian context. I believe that there are lessons here that I will draw out later in the report regarding co-location of services, facility mix, interior design quality, architectural flavour and community involvement.

Teachers Village, Newark


The Research Tour Ireland

Background Ireland’s population is around four million. It has risen from three million 50 years ago but is down from the peak of eight million in the early 19th century.

It is an ancient place with castles and forts to show for it, along with a gentle landscape and a rainfall Australia would envy. But it seems all is not perfect and a lack of mineral wealth and a history of political strife with England has meant it has struggled financially for many years. While having a brief period as the "Celtic Tiger”, it has now had several years of economic hardship. Interestingly, family or clan rivalries seem to have created a fertile ground for displacement and disengagement in some of its young people, quite a different cause to those in Australia, Canada, or the USA. I visited two Youth Encounter Project schools, one in Dublin and one in Limerick.

Dublin I met with Tony Sheppard, an architect in the Irish Education Department and discussed the issue with him. It seems that the Irish model is one of trying to retain students at school until they reach 16 years old. It seems that they use a somewhat draconian measure of applying pressure to parents through threats of court action, fines, and even imprisonment to achieve this outcome. They provide additional funding and facilities at the mainstream schools (nominated as DEIS schools) for this purpose. Of course this does not pick up all students, so there is a system of schools of last resort called the “Youth Encounter Project”. There are five of these schools each with a maximum of 24 students. These schools grew out of problems identified in a royal commission where former “industrial schools” existed for poor deprived children as secure units but where significant abuses occurred.

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Seville Place School Dublin. The Seville Place School is in Dublin. We met with principal, Nuala Grealy. It is currently housed in demountable buildings in a pretty scary and tragic setting down an alley off another alley in a difficult part of town. However, it is soon to be replaced with a brand new school on a site which is much more public, although in the same area. The key components of the proposed new buildings are:

• A significant kitchen and dining facility• Four new classrooms• A new art space• New individual toilet suites• New admin offices• A roof top play/activity space

These are all over four storeys, including a basement.

The style of building proposed is quite sympathetic to the existing fabric of row house style buildings which are adjacent to it, albeit with enough interest to add something architecturally to the street without "shouting" its presence. Nualas comments on the concept and design were :The community is of a "family " size and offers a homelife environment that the young people don't have in their own homes. The spaces are filled with natural light, and reflect an importance in the students lives, not hidden and dark spaces engendering worthlessness. The building will give a sense of importance to the students lives. However, it must still be a school, complete with some of the school markers of desks and white boards, a library and a sense of routine. Students are taught in groups of six grouped by personality rather than age, and work toward passing the state exam for grade 10.

I believe this new school will be a huge change for the better for this school and its students and staff. However, the offering is still quite limited and compunction still seems to be the main driver rather than student interest and aspiration.



St Augustine’s School, Limerick


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Limerick We met with Andrew Boyle in Limerick to look at the St Augustine’s YEP campus. The school started in 1977, following the earlier mentioned Royal Commission in to ndustrial schools. It was in an old hall between two pubs for more than 30 years before moving to its current facility which is a refurbished church that has been through various lifes such as a church, police youth club, and function centre, before being converted in 2011. Ironically these uses are somewhat at odds with the students sensibilities. The school has 24 students all of whom are suffering some sort of emotional behavoural disorders born out of abuse or dislocation. The school is funded by government but is not easily defined as being under a particular government umbrella. Problems in the town which impact on students include poverty, drugs, and unemployment, but for me remarkably include community factions, gangs and feuds dating back many years. The school is staffed by the principal, four teachers, two special needs assistants, a community worker, a caretaker, “bean a ti” (a kind of “House mum”), secretary, and youth worker. It works on three classes of eight students with two adults to each class. Attendance for children under 17 is pursued by the governement for all schools through court action. Non attendance can lead to detention of students and fines for parents. The school has some success stories in students who have gone on to reasonable jobs or further study, but equally there is a history of suicides, imprisonment, and deaths and second generation repetition of failure. However, the move to the new school which is a significantly improved facility has resulted in increased empowerment of students and staff alike with increased pride and involvement in the school. The school has a dining room/community space in an old domed santuary space with adjacent kitchen and three classrooms, completed with stained glass windows and a common room which has stone work walls and high timber ceilings.

It lacks a ball sports area, bus parking and a gym which would be useful. A sensory room where students could escape for time out with soft furnishings and music would also be a welcome addition.


Andrew Boyce, who has been principal since 2011 when the school moved, had a number of interesting comments on how the building for such a school makes a difference to student outcomes. He used a triangle diagram to show the three components, of staff, students and facilities, saying the first two are very difficult to change but the third, being the building can change and can be used to affect change in the other two. He suggested the following points where buildngs can have an enormous impact.• The quality of the arrival point or entry and the message it sends to students, staff and the community alike• Design which is not chaotic • A higher quality building has a significant impact on staff morale, which with such a difficult cohort of students is essential• Good quality, upholstered furniture• A sink in every room• The importance of space allowing room for quite active students to move around without colliding with others• Gardening projects area • Good interior design with a sense of style• High frequency fluorescent lights • No fences• Care with building names not to reinforce old anxieties• Some maintenance tasks to be undertaken by students, as jobs are a way of teaching responsibilty

Essentially, Andrew was saying, "Better buildings create higher expectations for students futures". They lift the sense of self worth of students and show respect for the staff who undertake a caring but difficult task.


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Summary Interestingly, each country seems to have groups of disengaged youth with a different history and reason for disengagement. I am sure there are similarities too, but in Ireland’s case, poverty drawn from its long history of conflict and lack of resources, along with family and religous histories seems to lead to its own peculiarities. The main approach taken has been to pursue retention in mainstream school as much as possible, but once this fails too, then provide, albeit in mostly very poor facilities, for small schools similar to but much less resourced than our new Australian/Queensland models. However, speaking to the staff in a frank and honest discussion, I believe it can be seen that investment in buildings which are comfortable and have a sense of quality and importance can and will make a difference to outcomes through both staff and student engagement. The facility mix, the detailing, the finishes, the furniture, the landscape, the flexibility, the ability to display, and a high level of design ownership by the community are the critical components in this challenge. A highly evocative form without flexibility nor ownership from the community will not achieve this. However, nor will poor, cheap, ill considered, uncaring buildings which devalue their occupants as unworthy.



The Research Tour England

Background The United Kingdom is, of course, very similar to Australia in so many ways. However, it does differ in the education and demographic field in interesting ways. It doesn't have our issue with indigenous education and displacement, but it does have a long term issue with migration. It also has a big issue with the decline of mining and manufacturing which has left pockets of the country very poor. Marriage breakdown and drug and alcohol use are typical western problems, albeit seemingly greater than some others, and the GFC has bitten particularly hard in the UK. The Blair government reengineered the education system and spent alot on new buildings for the newly named and structured "Academies". However, they had a very protracted procurement process, and a D&C pricing process, leading to very high costs. The work also encouraged architectural innovation, but from what I could see, much of it was lacking educational innovation relying instead on capital ‘A’ architecture for WOW results but with little connection to real educational needs. The new government’s post GFC response has been to swing the pendulum wildly right and throw out all innovation and introduce a very constraining formula for new buildings. The shift toward very autonomous schools as either Acadamies in business chains or free schools along with "baseline" designs seems to indicate a very traditional and conservative approach to schools and pedagogy and testing regimes. The outcome in the field which I am pursueing is that young people failing this system are not really catered for. Pupil Referral Units are in place for young people with "behavioural/social/emotional issues.”

Meetings I met with Alastair Blyth, Neil Logue, and Terry White, all of whom are involved with the UK education system. All told a story of the new governments approach being one of disinterest in alternative education approaches for young people not fitting the dominant conservative model, with their empahsis being either technical college reinvestment, or social/behavioural units focussing on correction of behaviour rather than acceptance of difference.

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Maplefields Academy, Corby We visited Maplefields school with Terry White of UK Learning. This is a school for 104 young people from five to 18 with "social or emotional/behavioural" issues.

It is a large facility on a big site just north of Corby, England. It is broken up into a junior school, senior school, sports centre, and four separate PRU for other students. It has a full synthetic soccer field, a fully sprung timber floored gym, commercial kitchen, and quite large spaces for every use. It has a Cedem Roof (green roof) in a beautiful curving form, reminiscent of the surrounding dales. However, pedagogically and detail design wise I found it very difficult to understand or support this schools formula. The school has a five metre high fence around it to keep students in. It has a security system where there are several layers of security as you arrive and move through the facility. It has large central dining spaces complete with commercial kitchens for breakfasts and lunches but without any view to the exterior other than high skylights. It has "isolation" rooms for misbehaving children, which are small barren spaces. It has a sensory room for showing movies, sounds , and generally to “calm” students. It has numerous internal corridors leading through the building which are generally dark spaces. It has play spaces externally, entirely of concrete or bitumen, surrounded by fences.

Maplefields Academy, Corby


There is very little display of students work.

The building is dominated by hard surfaces with very little acoustic absorption surfaces anywhere. It has completely failed in this area. In short, this is a very expensive, elaborate facility both architecturally dynamic at the macro scale, and with every facility a school of ten times the enrolment would die for. However, both its pedagogy of control, and its authoritarian feel of corridors, square spaces, and lack of indoor/outdoor connection, along with its overwhelming fences is nothing short of scary. While aware that the students it houses may be quite difficult, I could only imagine that this school would exacerbate that behaviour rather than assist it. I need to undertake more research of the British system, but first impressions indicate, students not fitting the norm, or let down by societal or parental support, are considered a "problem" rather than an opportunity for alternative methods of engagement. This school also confirms to me a mismatch between dynamic architectural solutions and the real flexible and joyful needs of students and staff. Space and "wild" shapes do not deliver meaningful outcomes.


Maplefields Academy, Corby

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The New Round House, Manchester We also a visited a new school/community centre in East Manchester, one of the poorest districts in the UK. It is a three storey brick building with community spaces on the ground floor, and teaching spaces on both of the upper levels. This building houses the Manchester Settlement School, a school for 24 disengaged young people, aged 14 to 16. These students generally have emotional/behavioural issues but are not universally categorised as such. It also houses the Manchester College for students going on to do ‘A’ level education. It would also only house about 24 students. From the same building and spaces, the Manchester Settlement, a charity in place since 1895, runs such activities as legal and finacial counselling, Zumba classes, Thai chi, ESL, sewing, bingo, IT classes, emotional well being classes, after school care, and a young persons housing project. In short it is a community hub. It is staffed by a combination of teachers and community workers and is funded by a combination of school referral funds, national lottery funds, and donations. The building was funded from multiple sources, including long term leases of community spaces, gifts in kind, and charities. There is a tension between the school uses and community uses, evident in our visit, but instead of regarding this as a problem, the staff welcome the complex co-existence issues as learning experiences for all and essential to its success. Once again food, particularly breakfast, is a big driver and the kitchen/dining area is the most important space in the project. Three teaching spaces on level one and more open teaching spaces on level two are tight and not particularly dynamic. They serve the purpose, but could have a better outlook, be more dynamic and flexible, and incorporate more display. There is a void space connecting all levels, and the stairwell similarly tries to connect spaces, but not altogether convincingly. However, this is a building which has been funded through great effort and imagination, built in a tough part of town with some sensitivity to its place and ambitions, and staffed with caring people. It is achieving many of its goals of finding young people an education and a job, keeping them safe through these years, but not isolating them and institutionalising them.


Summary I have not seen enough of the British system to gain a clear insight into their education system and its current dilemmas or opportunities.

However, the individuals I have spoken to, and the 2 projects I have seen, which relate to young people from outside the mainstream, reinforce the emerging view that for success in providing education facilities for the disengaged and disadvantaged, we must have a consultative process involving architects, staff and students, provide professional standard facilties, with flexibility to change learning modes easily, display students work, be generous with natural light and views to the environment, and allow joy and playfullness.


The New Round House, Manchester

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The New Round House, Manchester


The Research Tour Finland

Background Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet with Education or Architectural leaders while in Finland due to it being peak holiday season. I was able to have email discussions with Reino Tapaninen, the Finnish education department chief architect, as well as obtain a list of their best schools to visit. However, I did meet with a student exchange manager, Riitta Tiainen, who was able to give me a good understanding of the education system, given her day to day involvement. I also visited 10 schools in Helsinki and nearby Espoo to understand how they sit within the Finnish environment. Finland has a population of around 5.5 million and is reasonably decentralised, the capital Helsinki having a population of just over 600,000. Finland, like most European states has felt the GFC's intensity, but it seems that they have weathered that storm better than most. Judging by the number of cranes and construction occurring, the economy seems reasonably active. Finland has an indigenous population. However, my travels didn't include their schools which are predominantly in the far north. This country has topped the PISA test rankings for OECD countries for some time. So it is of great inerest how they have approached the issues of disengagement and disadvantage. It seems to me, by casual observation and discussion with both their chief architect, and Riitta Tiainen, that Finland has largely avoided this issue. Its socialist political system, combined with the Finn's general relaxed and socially sensitive disposition, seem to reduce the severity of the issues.

Jarvenpaan Lukio

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Torpparinmaen Peruskoulu

Soinisen koulu



Finland has a generous maternity leave system, ongoing financial support for stay at home mothers as well as a quality early education system, and a holistic school system which provides a unique community flavour to education. Schools provide all the childrens meals during school, negating one source of disadvantage we see, at the same time generating a good diet culture for young people, as well as providing, from the youngest age a community spirit and dining culture. In addition to this, the Finnish culture of design excellence makes its way into its school system. Unlike many countries, where schools seem to be regarded as unworthy of design importance, Australia included, Finland takes pride in providing its young people with environments which introduce them, form the earliest age, to an expectation of quality design as a part of every day life. And it is not design that is audacious and heroic, but a design culture of sensitivity and appropriateness. One of design from inside out, and user needs first. It seems that the design culture seen in their product and furniture design which concentrates on solving day to day living problems in a stylish and artful way carries through to their school architecture. Finland has a free school (and University) system provided by the state and a very small private system resulting in consistent equity.

Lataokartanon Peruskoulu

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Arabian Peruskoulu

Martensbro Skoli



School visits I visited 10 schools spread across Helsinki and nearby Espoo. Every school clearly had a strong design influence. By that I mean that each school had a clear planning rationale, had used quality materials, was carefully detailed, had intergrated joinery, signage, and loose furniture, and had a sense of experiment and joy.

It was also clear there was a progression of work occurring in Finland. The work I visited was built over a 20 year period and the latest work showed the progression of ideas. I think it could be categorised as being the increasing importance of meshing architectural thinking with educational programs. Also overall heroic form ideas being subsumed by interior planning and space considerations, ironically delivering even better, if also more complex external aesthetics. The earlier work is dominated by strong external forms such as the oval shaped plans or curved wall systems. However, later work, especially architects Martensbro Skoli and Saunalahden Koulu , are dominated by internal planning and space arrangements, which then produce very irregular and unfamiliar, yet powerful external forms. External use of timber has given way to use of mass masonry walls, beautifully detailed by use of various brick bonding, colouring and jointing arrangements.

Saunalahden Koulu

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Internal planning is fluid, allows use of corridor spaces for educational uses, and multi-modal uses of major spaces. High quality timber finishes in both joinery and door and window assemblies, relates well to Finlands timber industry background and setting, as well as providing a gentle timeless quality. Attention to every detail shows a committment by all involved from the funding agencies through to tradesmen, in providing students with a design and craftesmanship outcome that would and should be expected by all in the community. Schools are certainly not the poor cousin. I believe this very high quality approach to school planning and design, obviously including educators, architects, and builders alike, communicates to staff and students alike, their importance in Finnish society. The Finnish social conscious, clear in the broader community, is evident in all in the buildings for the youngest in the community. Pedagogically, the schools still have a generally cellular arrangement , albeit with good visual connectivity and break out spaces, but with little evidence of completely open planned arrangements. Public spaces, however, have multiple uses of dining, theatre, and study, along with increasingly good access to external space and light, despite only limited times of the year being hospitable. External spaces and landscaping are carefully designed to allow class and group activites with a myriad of amphitheatre spaces included.

Hosmarinpuiston Koulu


Summary At the macro level, Finland is an impressive place with what seems like a cohesive society, supported by progressive politics, and a caring society where, from the earliest age, children and families are supported throughout schooling. They grow up in an environment that is of at least the standard the community expects throughout its built environment, if not better. You get the feeling throughout, that everyone accepts that the future rests with a countries young people and they should be influenced by the best thinking we have, if we are to hope for them to take the country forward. Finnish schools are of a very high standard, in concept through to detail, and they provide, free of charge both an education, as well as day to day living examples that will inspire and connect a generation. Much like the All Stars project in NYC, it tries to introduce its young people to things that they might not be exposed to in day to day life, Finlands schools show its young people what they should expect of their living environments as they become the future community leaders. If graffiti, street behaviour of youth, and perceptions of community safety are any indication, Finland is doing things well.

Kirkkojarvi Koulu


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Ruusutorpan Koulu


The Research Tour Singapore

Background. Singapore, now 49 years old as its own nation, has made amazing progress economically and educationally. I believe it is ranked the third richest country per capita in the world and is a very intensely populated environment. I made contact with the Singapore Ministry of Education regarding my subject and was directed to, among others, the Crest Secondary College, which seems to have a similar goal as that of our Flexible Learning Centres, albeit at a completely different scale. I visited Crest SC, as well as 3 other schools for a range of autism or other disabilities or disorders. While not strictly within the gambit of my subject, their attitude to the effects of building on teacher, student and parent morale was interestingly similar to my field.

Autism schools and disability schools I visited Eden and Pathlight schools which assist students with Autism, and Fernvale gardens school which accommodates the needs of intellectually disabled children. These schools are all at least three storeys high, built in predominantly masonry construction with open verandahs and cellular classrooms. Climate in Singapore is a key driver of design layouts. In the absence of air-conditioning due to budget and environmental constraints, the buildings are generally designed with single loaded verandahs in relatively linear blocks, much like historical Queensland school buildings, albeit in heavy weight construction. High humidity levels mean finishes are limited to concrete floors and surfaces which are mould resistant. The schools have a fairly conservative and normal range of facilities, consisting of general classrooms, admin and staff areas, a gym, some music and art spaces, and outdoor sports facilities. Double shifting of the schools programs tends to limit any personalised space for staff or students. The schools did have quasi commercial facilities such as a café or shop to encourage skills development in work place environments. However, these schools tended to be pretty conservative architecturally, especially when compared to more recent architectural signature works in Singapore’s tourism district. Whereas Finland’s architectural approach was evident in all buildings in its community, especially schools, Singapore has to date seen most of its architectural energy directed toward tourism. Schools are in general relatively utilitarian. That said, the Fernvale gardens school displays an architectural language which is starting down the road toward a more dynamic special experience.

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However, on a previous tour of Singapore in 2007 I visited a huge Polytechnic facility which very definitely had a powerful architectural language which was specifically designed, as I understand it, to lift the profile of these sub university facilities to overcome community perceptions of inferior educational paths taught there. I therefore hesitate to be too critical of the Singaporean schools I visited, just merely making the point that they are still in the formative stages of bringing an artfulness to the school projects I visited.

My hosts, Annie Tan (Fernvale), Mrs Ng Sock Klan (Eden),and Lydia Chow (Pathlight), were wonderful hosts and their care and concern for their young student’s was very clear and palpable. Phan Pit Li of MKPL Architects helped arrange my tours which was extremely helpful.


Crest Secondary College I met with Frederick Yeo of Crest Secondary College, who was very generous with his time and showed me around his school. Crest is a school which provides an education with students whose test results in their year six tests were not adequate to enter the two school strands above this school.

The school concentrates on training students to be work ready. It has an enrolment of around 900 and growing and has, again a relatively standard (from an Australian perspective) set of facilities, and like Queensland a style which consists of classroom spaces linked by open verandahs.

The school has numerous specialist facilities with work styled spaces such as a mock shop to teach maths through things like stocking shelves and the like. With a very large enrolment, the school has a very different feel to those that we are building in Australia, but that is pretty consistent across all Singaporean schools which are very large.

CEFPI Singapore While in Singapore I also addressed a CEFPI forum, along with Phan Pit Li. I discussed our experience to date on Flexible Learning Centres in Australia and Pit Li explained a new international school she has designed in Hong Kong. This forum was designed to help develop CEFPI’s capacity in Singapore to act as a vehicle for professional development and sharing of knowledge about design for education. It was interesting to get feedback from Singaporeans present, that Singapore does have similar disengagement issues to that of Australia, but that it was at present not well recognised in the system. Continuation of sharing of knowledge through the Singapore CEFPI chapter’s relationship with the Australasian region may help the development of ideas.

Summary Singapore is a fascinating place which displays a remarkable enthusiasm for change and improvement. It’s recent tourism developments of the Marina Bay area attest to this, as well as more subtle inclusion of sculpture and art in its public spaces. All Singaporeans that we met were enthusiastic and friendly. We remarked regularly on the very evident attempts through signage to make Singapore a tolerant, and thoughtful community, against a backdrop of a very commercial environment. Its schools for the poorer performing students are of a high standard and seemingly improving all the time. I understand Singapore is on the verge of a major overhaul of its schools generally. I hope they too treat that redevelopment with the same aspirational approach that I will be including on the recommendations from this journey.

The Research Tour Singapore

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Fernvale Gardens School


Europe While not part of the “Churchill” tour. I took a break in the tour and visited four countries in Europe being Belgium, Germany, France and Switzerland. The experience of visiting the “old town” components of almost every town we visited was inspiring. The relaxed planning of these pre-motorcar environments is just delightful.

Their use of variety, scale, subtlety, and apparent disorder creates built environments which are people friendly, relaxed and inspiring, with hints of humour and intrigue. The inspiring schools I visited in Finland seemed to repeat that relaxed planning nature as part of their recipe for success.

I look forward to exploring this further in our work as it evolves.

The Research Tour Europe


Towards an authentic Architecture for the disengaged Having travelled to six countries to study how others are approaching school facilities for disadvantaged and disengaged youth, with a European interlude, I believe the early work we are doing in this field is already of a high standard, courtesy of Dale Murray’s work and others in the development of the idea of flexible learning centres. However, there are a number of areas which we can explore further.They are listed below and hark back in part to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a way of stratifying the ideas.

1. Physiological issues: a. While our current model for FLCs include the provision of food as a prerequisite for student engagement and performance, enhancement of the dining experience as a part of learning how to engage with the broader community could be further investigated. Likewise the importance of diet and nutrition could form part of our architectural flavour.

b. School buildings must ensure that fresh air, climate control and lack of pollutants affect student performance.

c. The connectedness of learning environments to the external environment, particularly in the Australian setting is imperative, to a quality learning environment

2. Safety a. The design of educational environments which are open and light, with good passive surveillance to reduce opportunities for bullying or violence is essential. b. The design of toilet facilities which have no semi private spaces are essential to the reduction of bullying or other antisocial activities beyond the oversight by staff. c. The design of facilities which minimise opportunities for public self harm is also important. 3. Communal a. The co-location of other government or non-government assistance organisations, as well as accommodation and general community facilities on sites may enhance the sense of community our “schools” enjoy. b. Providing facilities which are in context with the local environment, connected to the natural environment, non- institutional in flavour, and with a sense of relaxation will help re-engage those students reacting against the dominant authoritarian model.

Conclusions and Recommendations

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4. Self esteem building a. Providing facilities which are of a professional standard and which show students what they should expect in quality and real working environments. b. Providing facilities in which student work can be displayed professionally and easily changeable. 5. Self-Actualization a. Providing buildings which are of a high architectural standard, with quality finishes, spaces and fitout which teach our students to aspire to living in quality built environments. b. Providing facilities which are artful, stylish, environmentally responsible and with a sense of adventure and humour. c. And above all, the design of educational facilities which are authentic expressions of the desire to learn and live in a world which embraces difference.

Mark Trotter - 2013 Churchill Fellow

Conclusions and Recommendations

Information sharing

One thing I was struck by throughout my tour was that each different education group that I met knew very little of the other groups with which I had met. There is clearly a need for more sharing of experiences and examples in this field.

In Australia, this has been happening for some-time through CEFPI, albeit with more improvement possible. However, internationally there appears to be a big opportunity to have more dialogue on the subject. I will be exploring that idea over the coming years. Dissemination of information. I plan to discuss these issues further with colleagues in the Architectural and Educational professions through my association with both The Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) and the Queensland Educational Leaders Institute (QELI). I am in constant discussion with our key client “Youth plus” as we design new facilities across Australia, along with my staff as they develop skills in this area. Further to this, I look forward to discussing the issues of quality that are perhaps the most significant component of this report. Too often the political class has no understanding or appreciation of the effect of our built environments on young people’s aspirations. I hope to change that and hopefully contribute to Australia continuing its evolution and advancement as a country which embraces design as a key element in a successful society.

Websites http://www.churchilltrust.com.au/media/fellows/2011_Murray_Dale.pdf

http://www.westsidemontessoriacademy.ca/ http://ecps.educ.ubc.ca/ http://maplefields.northants.sch.uk/our-school.aspx http://www.churchilltrust.com.au/media/fellows/2011_Murray_Dale.pdf

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THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA · I would like to thank the Winston Churchill...

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