Syntax and Scale

When we met in Amsterdam, there were a number of questions that were posed in workshops on the location (place) of learning, the space (environment) of learning, the time of learning, the cost (sustainability) of learning, and the context of learning. The discussion of scale was focused on the personal experience.

"While size has long been used interchangeably with scale, size is just one characteristic of scale. Scale is also defined by its context, its pattern of parts, its syntax."

Scale relates people to the places they inhabit. It varies from building to building and from user to user. While size has long been used interchangeably with scale, size is just one characteristic of scale. Scale is also defined by its context, its pattern of parts, its syntax. The way users interact with buildings are changing. Terms like recombinant architecture are becoming commonplace. Currently, people are much more aggressive in defining their own context. In order to define scale, a project needs to be both site specific and user specific. Characteristics of scale in schools include connections to the surrounding community, a sense of arrival, a variety of individual and group learning places, connections between users, and an ability to affect.

The correct relations of the user (learner) to the community will vary from place to place and from grade level to grade level.  In the Netherlands, elementary schools are sized according to age and the appropriate travel distance for the student. The basic school (elementary) school is located and sized based on an acceptable walking distance (two km). The pre-vocational/continued ed school (middle and high school) is sized based on an acceptable biking distance (20 km). Other education centers and community schools are located in city centers close to public transportation.

In the United States, we moved away from the neighborhood school and toward a pattern of larger schools, the theory being we should take advantage of economies of scale. There is now growing evidence that the mega-school caues disenfranchisement, leaving students feeling alienated and disconnected. Furthermore, it may not really provide the related cost savings originally believed. As a result the pendulum is swinging back toward the smaller, user-based school.

There are, however, still cases where large schools are being built. There is also the case of the large existing school that cannot be replaced, but needs to be improved, either due to the condition of the existing physical plant or the academic status. When given the program for a mega-school, architects need to find means to engage students and faculty in their design. Architects also have to take the responsibility to team up with educators and policy makers, to provide the proper advocacy for building appropriately scaled schools that can be responsive to the emerging patterns of learning.

Regardless of the size or age group, schools should provide an ability to change from the scale of the community to that of the classroom. There should be a communal sense of identity when you arrive. There should be a place for the school community, a heart that provides a focus and center for student/faculty life. There should also be places for transition. There should be the ability to pause a few moments, reflect, and get ready for the classroom environment. This type of place may be as simple as a bench by a window, or a display case outside an art studio, or simply an enlarged area in the corridor. In the classroom there should also be a variety of places that allows groups of people to work more effectively in both group instructional areas and personal working stations.

Technology is further changing the patterns of buildings as users become more self-paced and user specific.

One of the responses to technology is the enhanced need for incidental social spaces that allow for self-paced, project-based learning to occur. These spaces are taking the form of smaller resource and seminar rooms.

In the Netherlands, they have created the “Study House” to break down the scale of the classroom environment. The Study House is divided into project groups that typically include four to six people. In addition to needing the correct architecture, there is the need for flexible furniture to simplify changing configurations and uses. As you move into high school, the need for personal spaces that respond to the more complex social and academic environments is apparent.

Ownership of space is very important and has to occur at every scale. At the civic scale, the school should serve as a presence in the community to offer a communal sense of identity. Once you have entered as a group, the building has to allow different sizes and groups of people to interact throughout the day.

At the personal scale, students must be able to personally connect and leave their mark. There should be an inherent hierarchy within the organization of a school that signals the types of activities that occur in different locations. At its worst, a school can become a maze of impersonal corridors that all look the same with no context in which students can respond. Architects can create a scale that begins to define the school’s character; but they must not be so rigid students cannot make their imprint.

Students learn in the classroom, they interact in the corridors, they plug in anywhere. While school programs will probably not grow on a per pupil basis, there needs to be some kind of recognition that at any one time there needs to be a larger variety of spaces to fulfill today’s student needs. The key to flexibility is a better understanding of how corridors and nooks and crannies can be used. In addition the to the physical space required, the support systems that allow change, including the appropriate lighting, acoustics, power, and information technology needs to be provided. Spaces that were traditionally considered part of the net to gross can be part of the answer. On a policy level, the integration of these spaces becomes important in allowing the transition in learning that must occur between now and 2050. Programming needs to be based on human needs as opposed to the standards-based profile used in many school districts. Architects need to work within communities to develop the correct performance standards. Innovation will start with people who recognize the need for a paradigm shift.