Scottish Executive Schools Estate Branch

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Scottish Executive Schools Estate
Branch BUILDING EXCELLENCE Royal College of
Surgeons Hall - Edinburgh 29 March 2007
ENABLING PLACEMAKING The role of design in
supporting Community Learning
John Worthington Founder DEGW Graham Willis
Professor University of Sheffield Professorial
Fellow the University of Melbourne
www.degw.com
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Buildings can be both a liability and an asset

• Space may be
• Expensive
• Poorly utilised
• Costly to maintain
• Slow to procure and dispose of
• However, space can be
• Focus for communicating identity
• Key education resource
• Stimulant to individuals and the community
• Valuable source of return

Charles Renee Mackintosh, Scotland Street School,
Glasgow
3
Architects design spaces, people make them places
Managing Continuous Change
Enjoyable Cities are the result of DESIGNING
MEANINGFUL SPACE within which people are
stimulated to interact to make MEMORABLE PLACES
Bristol - Glasgow - London -
Madrid - Melbourne - Milan -
New York - Paris - Sydney
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The School is a Microcosm of the City
DEGW Farnborough College, Interiors 1986
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Your building can support

• Efficiency
• Achieving more with less
• Driving down costs and using space more intensely
• Effectiveness
• Improving learning outcomes
• Expression
• Transmitting knowledge and community values

Will Alsop, Fawood Children Centre, Brent London
6
New building creates a framework to support
creative teaching
Hellerup School, Denmark
Play
Connection
Non Programmed Learning
Storytelling
Experiment
Reflect
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Inviting Forms
Herman Hertzberger, Apollo School, Amsterdam
1980-83
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Continuous dynamic process briefing, designing,
using, learning

• Merging Two Interests
• Learning and Building
• Introduction to
• Forms of learning
• Pedagogic models
• Different intelligences
• STUDY TRIP
• Inspiration
• Exchange experiences
• Shared/common references
• TOOLS
• The Sketch
• Goblen Visualising settings
• Space diagrams
• Virtual models
• Cardboard models

Hellerup School, Denmark
Translating the learning process and pedagogic
principles with building blocks is a
metamorphosis for both the project and the
participant
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Match pedagogical aspirations to building
opportunities
Kazumi Kudo, High School, Fukuoka, Japan
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Three themes for thought

• Managing paradox
• Accepting conflicting demands
• Intensification
• Using existing resources more effectively
• Upside down thinking
• Questioning perceived wisdom, rethinking the
  paradigm

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Success is the outcome of continuous commitment
and attention
DEGW Big Arts Week Working with Schools