Designing COVID-19 Spaces in School Building and Campus Design in India, USA and UK: By Arcmax Architects and Planners, Call +91-9898390866 for School Building and campus design anywhere in India.
On the initial launch of the school, the campus will mostly have a blend of virtual learning and offline instruction. Even though the school campuses reopen soon, they will not have sufficient space on the campus that will accommodate the whole student population as per the Government social distancing guidelines.
There is a lot of uncertainty as schools and colleges plan to reopen their buildings for the teachers and students. To make sure complete safety of the students, staff, and educators, there will be a chance in the layout— from the classrooms to cafeterias, playgrounds, and outdoor areas. The impact of COVID-19 has changed our education system forever. Our opportunity as an architect is to apply what we have learned and rethink our studying experiences and make connections better.
When we navigate to the next possibility, educators will have to rethink how to use the current technology and classroom free space design that improves both the platforms to build a safe and secure learning environment, which can improve learning outcomes.
School Building and Campus Design Spaces Post COVID-19
When we look at our new future for higher learning design facilities, an important consideration is how to shape and design the current use of the physical spaces. Looking at the expected changes in today’s education process, many existing areas in the school and universities will have to be a rethink, and the new build locations need a new approach to design.
This type of change can be observed in other industries too, for the engineers, this means being creative and open-minded when it comes to designing institutional buildings. Earlier, the primary purpose of an institutional building has been quite clear from its outset, but when we look at tomorrow’s world, architects and engineers need to design for agility, a human-centered approach and ensure advancements are resilient.
Where are do we stand now?
As our education has moved virtual, it’s important to think that this nature of lessons taught hasn’t been much impacted by this shift. So, the design studio has been the space that needs exploration and experimentation to facilitate proper learning that will go well beyond the lesson plan.
There’s a kind of familiarity, which grows around such spaces between the students and the faculty, like incubators for thought and development of an idea. This privacy of space, learning and thought has been considered as an important part of the design disciplines such as fashion, graphics, and architecture, to this process of building.
Whereas this contemplation might appear a bit didactic, there’re a few real transformations, which has urged the design educators to evaluate what constitutes the real spirit of the school design learning. It’s one critical situation, where there is a comfortable shift to the digital classrooms, however on the other hand there’s not any way to measure the effectiveness.
When we talked with different school educators we came to know that functioning in various capacities, presenting a complete understanding of its design going forward.
How Will Schools Create More Space?
Certain short-term changes on how the schools operate during Covid-19 have already being applied, with the main focus is on compartmentalization of the groups and hygiene within the campus as ‘bubbles’, and staggered timetables to decrease congestion and increasing available space.
Looking ahead, I am sure now in all the new school designs, the senior management teams are more focused on the COVID-19 related themes like more emphasis on the student's movement across the school, hygiene, and environmental conditions.
One big challenge seen in the longer term is seeking the partial relaxation of this prescriptive nature of Building Bulletins, which define area & acoustic needs. Just in this way architects and designers can develop new kinds of more space that will be less controlled and give higher flexibility.
An evaluation of how the modern institutional building design was modified and maintained for the new procedures is given below:
Infrastructure Consideration
- Separation of the students, bus and other vehicular drop off that will reduce congestion
- Multiple entrances that will reduce interaction of students while entering/exiting the premises
- Big corridor and main streets that will encourage social distancing
- Sanitation and washing booths at the entries and congregation areas
Traffic Flow In and Around the Campus
- Wide Corridors that will allow two-way separation of the students
- Well-managed educational pods that will reduce travel within the premise
- Multiple toilets units in the primary classrooms that will reduce traffic
- Horizontal/vertical travel areas that allow separation & organization of better traffic flow
- Open canteen area that minimizes congestion
Learning and Teaching Areas
- Collaborative Learning–Areas were adaptable in creating more educational spaces & reduce student and teacher ratios in every class
- Outdoor Learning areas must create more learning spaces that will decrease congestion – and must be done outdoors!
School Interiors
- Existing finish selections must be cleaned & sanitized easily
- Go for touchless faucets & flush valves, hand dryers, soap dispensers, and towel dispensers
- Movable furniture that promotes social distancing
- Doorless bathrooms with sinks facing towards hallways will reduce interaction with the touchless access
- More bottle fillers than drinking fountains
- Finish materials that can be sanitized easily.
- Movable furniture for quick transition of space and adapt to schools needs and social distancing
Other Facilities
- Continuous monitoring of the indoor Air Quality
- Improving ventilation rates
- Offering better filtration in the HVAC equipment
- Using air cleaning technologies & UV lights
- Offering humidification in some areas
- Easy to operate windows that improve natural ventilation
Design Options in Schools That Help with Social Distancing
The primary and secondary institutional facilities do much more than offer space for continuous learning. They are vital sites for physical and mental health care, other services, especially in our nation’s disinvested neighborhoods. Getting the schools up and function safely has certain health consequences that are much beyond COVID-19. So, we need to think about the entire picture in the terms of promoting the health of the students.
- Even in the post-COVID setting, we think that social distancing is going to be common, thus we envisage on lower density of classrooms & students spaced at least one meter away. Consider room dividers & flexible furniture that will give us the ability to shape our classroom as per the needs.
- Many schools have got spatial resources, which might have to get evaluated through the new filter. The large volume spaces like the school’s canteen, sports areas, and auditorium will become important assets that schools will use on an interim basis and create distance between the students.
- To accommodate the students who cannot join their class physically (whether it is due to mild cold, or working parents who can’t end their work to commute), the hybrid classes will take place in case there is the equipment that will live-stream & caption rapidly.
- Look at additional design choice that is available to the schools will be wayfinding methods in the hallways––like, lines and arrows that will show students the right way to walk up or down. To increase social distancing measures, it can be an important concept, which is readily enforced by the educators so students are not passing one another very closely or following behind one another at the close proximity.
- Futuristic classrooms may feature automated & hands-free technology. We will see some touchless lighting, voice-activated elevators, motion-sensor doors, and much more. Books and pens may get replaced by collaborative software, and allowing the students to create their materials online, both remotely and personally.
- The last way to decrease density is staggering arrival times and opens up several entrances. The temperature checks must be made mandatory at the entry points. Use of the current technology like wearable devices and heat-sensing cameras will help to reduce congestion at the entry points.
How Can COVID-19 Impact the School Design in the Long-Term?
While approaching various education projects, architects will very carefully consider various requirements for digital resiliency. An idea is quite simple, as our buildings can function when a natural disaster happens, so they must be ready in an event of such a crisis that forces our world to function solely on the digital scale.
Architects and designers together can take this widespread impact of the COVID-19 into consideration while creating or renovating institutional buildings. We are looking for various strategies that allow students to connect better to the school building even though they cannot physically be there.
Students who might not have access to digital technology or who cannot rely on safe learning experiences at home can look to the community for resources just in an event of an isolating crisis. We look forward to the additional discussion over the material selection and cleaning and maintenance of the protocols. Understanding how the materials behave or interact will be something, which gets higher scrutiny.
The skills that students learn at school campus can make a strong and meaningful impact after graduation, however, this is possible only if they feel supported right from the beginning.
Arcmax Architects provides specialized architecture and design services for school building and institutional campus anywhere in India, USA and UK, Call arcmax architects +91-9898390866
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