The new Riverheights School, constructed by the Brandon (Manitoba) School Board for kindergarten through ninth grade students, was built as a "low-profile" school with an "earthberm" in order to save on heating, vandalism, and insurance costs and to integrate the building into a neighborhood park setting.…

Too often building facilities use yesterday's materials and methods to solve yeaterday's educational problems. The solution is to use newly available technologies to build facilities that will respond to changing patterns in education and reduce the frustrating amounts of time and money lavished on each project. The most important consideration…

This document attempts to provide a "state of the art" study of the application of building systems to construction with emphasis on educational facilities. Although directed primarily at the architect and the building team, this material can also be useful to those who contemplate using building systems. Building systems are considered part of a…

This paper reviews briefly the literature concerned with the use of modular components in the construction of educational facilities. Fourteen of the documents reviewed have previously been cited in RIE. The essence of the material found in the reviewed literature is organized into and discussed under the topics (1) modular components and…

Describes the design of the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in British Columbia, including the educational context and design goals. Includes information on architects, consultants, and cost, as well as floor plans and photographs. Discusses how the design for this First Nations school blends aboriginal constructs and…

School construction or renovation projects can have a profound affect on students, faculty and administration. The literature revealed that continuous communication is essential for a smooth process. This research identified bureaucratic issues and school climate to be leading factors of concern during construction projects. Analysis of this study…

This article looks at the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and its stated intention to "transform learning" from the perspective of the author's involvement as an architect/facilitator. Reflecting on his experiences, he focuses on the possibilities of the programme as a learning and change process, rather than as simply a…

This article is drawn from a qualitative study of the role that school building leaders play in building parent and community involvement in their schools. The article focuses on four of the principals involved in the study who--with their students, staff, parents, and community members--developed inclusive, meaningful, and transformative…

Many people narrowly focus on energy efficiency when defining a "high-performance" school--a school building that is economical with respect to heating, cooling, and electric lighting. That is certainly true, but in the broadest terms, a high-performance school is designed to minimize reliance on fossil fuels--and provide a comfortable, healthful,…

Benchmarks for cleanliness can be subjective. Now that LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards are gaining a foothold among facilities management and building professionals, there is a benchmark to strive for and a high-quality vacuum is a key part of the equation. LEED is a nationally accepted benchmark and blueprint for…

This article describes how the certification program developed by the U.S. Green Building Council has been a popular way for colleges to "go green," but its certification process has been hampering colleges' efforts. The private, nonprofit Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program has become synonymous with green construction,…

The Delaware Enhanced Assessment Grant (DE EAG) project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education in 2006 as an initiative to assist 10 state departments of education (SDE) teams, and local school district and high school teams, in implementing a comprehensive and balanced learning and assessment system (CBAS) with a strong emphasis on a…

Although considerable energy is invested in ensuring that pediatric hospital environments are psychosocially supportive, few researchers have connected the experiences of patients to hospital architecture, a crucial interface between healthcare delivery and patient care. Seeking to uncover children's experiences within a contemporary hospital, I…

In recent years the use of computers to carry out a range of tasks in the planning and management of educational buildings has proliferated. In June 1988, the Programme on Educational Building arranged a meeting of experts from 13 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries whose objectives were to identify: (1) the…

Proceedings of a meeting of representatives from 13 countries on the effect of the physical environment on educational quality are summaried. Three major issues are addressed: (1) the effect of the physical environment on education; (2) successful school building characteristics; and (3) what can be done to maintain and improve the quality of…