Reassignment and Remapping

This most basic method of accommodating change is the most basic tool of school users, but is relatively unpracticed by school planners. Reassignment of spaces is a simple change of use without any physical building changes. Remapping of a school or a section of a school occurs when a number of spaces has been reassigned. School users reassign spaces all the time, often despite what they were given by the school planners.

A middle school science lab could become an art lab, a home and career lab, or a regular classroom. Storage rooms, offices, and student small group rooms all have approximately the same size and environmental needs. A classroom is about the same size as a teacher planning center.

One of the more sophisticated large-scale examples of futures-oriented reassignment and remapping is Dublin-Scioto High School, Dublin, Ohio. Planned by DeJong & Associates and designed by Fanning/Howey & Associates, Inc., this 1600-student school can be interpreted as a traditional departmental high school without moving one wall. The key in the planning is the strategic location of science labs that, without physical change, can be reinterpreted as linked to interdisciplinary classrooms, or as a separate department.

Conversions
Demographic trends suggest we may have too many schools in the upcoming decades. Planning schools today for future conversions is simply good planning. Consideration could be given to floor depths for conversion to housing, or bay sizes for conversion to offices or commercial. A school building conceived as a campus of smaller buildings would allow partial conversion to community or other use without violating the integrity of components needed for continued use as a school.

THE ONE CONSTANT IS CHANGE
Planning flexible school facilities may require all of the concepts outlined here, as well as others to be developed. More important than the concepts is the attitude we as planners need to hold: embrace and facilitate inevitable change through careful planning and a willingness to speculate on the future of teaching and learning.

Frank M. Locker PhD, AIA, REFP
DeJong & Associates
Dublin, Ohio
614-798-8828
flocker@djainc.com

Steven Olson, AIA
Dull Olson Weekes Architects
Portland, Oregon
503-226-6950
steveo@dowa.com


Copyright Frank Locker, Steven Olson, and DesignShare 2003

Image Credits
1 & 2. K-8, K-12 Enrollment Charts:
US Dept Education
2. Progression diagram: DeJong & Associates
3. Old & New Thinking: PDT Architects
Mitten/Glove: DeJong & Associates
Dublin-Scioto High School: Fanning/Howey & Associates
Alpha & West Linn High Schools: Dull Olson Weekes Architects
Steelcase product brochure
Oxford Hills High School: PDT Architects
Ipswich Middle/High School: Flansburgh Associates

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