OECD Compendium launched and now available

CELE has launched its 2011 compendium which illustrates and describes the characteristics of 21stC schools and their relationship to their communities.

'Designing for Education: Compendium of Exemplary Educational Facilities 2011' showcases over 60 recently built or refurbished educational facilities from 28 countries. Collectively, these projects demonstrate state-of-the-art design in this field and each one is lavishly illustrated with colour photos, plans and descriptions.

The Compendium is now available from OECD online  http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education

The presentation has been archived and is available on http://webtv.oecd.org/conferences/5_1112/en/vod.php

The first presentation from Japan emphasised the need for constructive dialogue, careful observation and understanding the needs of children and teachers and the benefits from working with a client who had no preconceived idea of what a school must be, and therefore was open to new ideas, imaginative solutions and a free spirit of learning.

Australia's presentation by Martin Culkin and Julia Atkins referred to Dandenong High School in Victoria. It emphasises the need for transformation of the system through dialogue and debate, effective leadership, and allowing ideas to emerge. They emphasise that it is not a competition and not a linear process.

Key issues include:

• Collaboration in teams and across teams
• Coming up with your own solutions rather than copying one you've seen
• Identifying and achieving the things you say you value

Positive results from this approach were shown and are on the school's web site.

When asked about the benefits from bringing an interior designer into the team, the response was that Mary Featherstone had integrated aesthetic beauty and function to create an effective flow of spaces. Fine-tuning the building through carefully chosen purpose built furniture and fittings bring benefits.

Austria presented a beautiful special needs centre in which the children have opportunities to write, draw, cook, plant, play and receive care and stimulation. While there was a question about the benefits from integration, there are also benefits from providing a finely developed specialist centre.

Christian Kuhn from Vienna spoke about the waves of innovation in the 1965 - 1975 period in which there was a strong movement to self paced learning, new approaches to pedagogy and open space buildings. Despite this movement, many schools still look "industrial" and "factory" which do not meet the needs of the 21st C "knowledge society". He referred to a recent OCED report that proposes "three key qualities"

• Use the tools - especially ICT
• Act autonomously
• Interact in heterogeneous groups by collaborating and communicating across age, ethnic and geographical areas

Chile provided a view of the key issues in Latin America where there have been problems with funding and privatisation but a recent return to democracy which has led to better design and collaboration with key stakeholders including students, teachers, education administrators and the local community. Creating new learning environments in the 21stC is important, but not easy to achieve, but necessary if we are to achieve "knowledge society" outcomes. This is best done by:

• Consultation with educators and the local community
• Emphasis on competencies
• Examples of how a wide range of spaces could be used
• Prolonged exposure to better design, structure, and construction

Our colleague Alastair Blyth shows a video of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa as an example of building with openness and porosity with a sense of community and the creation of beautiful spaces which reflect the function of the centre.

The big question is how to manage places for learning effectively. Over the past 40 years the OCED has produced a series of reports which provide guidance on planning, maintenance, technology, environment, procurement and management and these issues are the subject o f ongoing discussion, evolution and debate. 

In recent years there has been an emphasis on speed of construction and minimisation of construction costs and less attention to maximising the benefits or working out ways to ensure value is achieved. As we move further into the 21st C it is hoped that we can unlock the potential and create places or learning which transform and stimulate users.

The launch ended with the following quote from Samuel Beckett

"All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."